THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


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J\A^JL    t- 


"UNFINISHED  TASKS 


SOUTHERN  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH 


HOMER  McMILLAN,  SECRETARY 
The  Executive  Committee  of  Home  Missions 


PRESBYTERIAN  COMMITTEE  OP  PUBLICATIOV 
RICHMOND,  VA. 


Copyright,  1922, 

By 

Presbyterian  Committee  of  Publication 
Richmond,  Va. 


Printed  in  United  State-*  of  America 


E 

CO 

1 

8 
oo 

To  THE  CHURCH'S  FAITHFUL  HOME  MISSIONARIES 
AND  THEIR  WIVES 

«M  WHO  IN  LOWLINESS  AND  OBSCURITY 

••r 

w  ARE  LABORING  TO  BUILD  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  INTO  THE 

§  LIFE  OF  THE  NATION 

THIS  BOOK  IR  AFFECTIONATELY  DEDICATED. 


462445 


CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTORY  STATEMENT 6 

I.     HOME  MISSION  OBJECTIVES 9 

II.     LAYING  FOUNDATION: f.  31 

III.  PAYING  A  DEBT 53 

IV.  THE  STRENGTH  OF  THE  HILLS 87 

V.     OUR  FUTURE  CITIZENS 115 

VI.    OUR  MEXICAN  NEIGHBORS ...  145 

VII.    THE  DEMANDS  OF  THE  TASK.  .  .173 


ENLARGING  RESPONSIBILITIES 


INTRODUCTORY  STATEMENT 


ENLARGING  RESPONSIBILITIES 


One  of  the  most  striking  facts  in  the  work  of  the 
Southern  Presbyterian  Church  has  been  the  expanding 
Home  Mission  operations.  The  story  of  Assembly's 
Home  Missions  is  a  story  of  increasing  responsibility. 
From  small  beginnings  it  has  become  through  constant 
additions  one  of  the  largest  and  most  fruitful  agencies 
of  the  General  Assembly.  It  is  the  conviction  of  many 
earnest  people  that  the  work  of  the  Executive  Commit- 
tee of  Home  Missions  has  grown  more  rapidly  than  the 
Church's  information  concerning  its  needs. 

Beginning  with  the  single  duty  of  assisting  feeble  con- 
gregations in  the  weaker  Presbyteries  and  newer  sections 
of  the  Church  to  support  a  minister  and  erect  a  house 
of  worship,  the  scope  of  the  work  has  been  enlarged  to 
embrace  a  task,  in  its  variety  and  magnitude,  that  other 
denominations  have  as  many  as  five  separate  Boards 
to  accomplish. 

The  first  addition  of  responsibility  was  the  transfer  of 
the  Indian  work  from  the  Executive  Committee  of  For- 
eign Missions  in  1889.  For  the  next  twenty  years  there 
was  the  growth  incident  to  the  unusual  development  of 
the  country,  especially  in  the  settlement  of  the  great 
Southwest. 

In  1909  the  General  Assembly  directed  the  attention 
of  the  Committee  to  the  many  thousands  of  foreign- 


ENLARGING  RESPONSIBILITIES  7 

speaking  people  coming  into  our  midst,  and  laid  upon 
it  the  responsibility  of  their  evangelization  as  a  divinely 
appointed  and  enlarging  task.  In  1910  the  Assembly 
discontinued  the  Committee  on  Colored  Evangelization, 
and  this  work  was  made  a  department  of  the  Assembly's 
Home  Missions. 

In  1911  Dr.  E.  O.  Guerrant  transferred  to  the  General 
Assembly  the  work  of  the  Soul  Winners'  Society,  con- 
sisting of  eighteen  missions  and  fifty  missionaries.  The 
Assembly  accepted  the  responsibility  and  placed  this 
added  burden  upon  its  already  over-burdened  Commit- 
tee of  Home  Missions.  The  same  Assembly  still  further 
enlarged  its  Home  Mission  work  when  the  Evangelistic 
Committee  was  discontinued  and  this  responsibility  was 
placed  with  the  Committee  of  Home  Missions. 

In  1920,  in  response  to  several  overtures,  the  General 
Assembly  directed  the  Executive  Committee  to  consider 
the  advisability  of  doing  something  for  the  evangelization 
of  the  Jews,  with  the  result  that  a  Jewish  Mission  was 
opened  in  Baltimore  in  co-operation  with  the  Home 
Mission  Board  of  the  Northern  Presbyterian  Church. 

Thus,  through  the  constant  enlargement  of  our  Home 
Mission  activities,  the  territory  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee has  come  to  be  co-extensive  with  that  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly.  It  extends  from  Maryland  to  New  Mex- 
ico, and  from  Missouri  to  Florida.  Some  phase  of  the 
Committee's  operations  is  found  in  every  Synod  and  in 
almost  every  Presbytery.  It  is  the  Assembly's  agency 
for  the  five-fold  work  of  Home  Missions,  Church  Erec- 
tion, Colored  Evangelization,  Mission  Schools  and  Evan- 
gelism. Its  missionaries  are  found  in  the  mountains, 
among  the  immigrants,  the  Indians,  the  Negroes,  in  the 
cities,  and  on  the  plains  of  the  great  West.  It  includes 


8  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

all  races,  classes  and  conditions.  In  its  various  activ- 
ities it  represents  so  many  fields,  pioneers  so  many  en- 
terprises, lays  the  foundation  of  so  many  possibilities, 
places  its  hand  beneath  the  burden  of  so  many  shoulders 
that  in  its  appeal  many  voices  make  their  plea. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  little  volume  to  tell  the  story 
of  our  Home  Mission  work  as  it  is  related  to  the  Assem- 
bly's Executive  Committee.  It  reveals  only  partially  the 
need,  the  opportunity  and  the  obligation.  It  attempts 
nothing  new  or  original,  but  strives  to  present  in  a  sim- 
ple way  some  of  the  tasks  that  our  Church  shares  with 
other  denominations  in  the  common  purpose  of  making 
America  Christian. 

This  series  of  studies  was  prepared  in  response  to  the 
earnest  request  of  leaders  of  missionary  education  who 
desired  a  manual  covering  the  Home  Mission  activities 
of  the  Assembly's  Committee.  It  is  sent  forth  in  the 
hope  that  it  will  enlarge  the  interest  and  quicken  the 
zeal  of  all  true  servants  of  Jesus  Christ  in  their  effort  for 
the  Christianization  of  America  and  the  evangelization 
of  the  world,  which  is  the  supreme  aim  of  every  true 
follower  of  Jesus  Christ. 

HOMER  MCMILLAN. 

Atlanta,  Ga.,  February,  1922. 


CHAPTER  I. 
HOME  MISSION  OBJECTIVES 


Population  of  the  United  States 105,708,771 

Protestant  Church  membership 26,205,039 

Roman  Catholics,  including  children 15,721,815 

Under  25  years,  not  in  Sunday  school 27,274,210 

Over  10  years,  not  members  of  church 50,696,890 

Under  10  years,  not  members  of  church.    .  7,413,240 

Total  not  members  of  church  58,110,130 

"If  you  would  point  to  the  weakest  spot  in  the 
Protestant  Church  you  would  put  your  finger  on  the 
army  of  27,000,000  children  and  youth  in  our  land  who 
are  growing  up  in  spiritual  illiteracy,  and  16,000,000 
other  Protestant  American  children  whose  religious 
instruction  is  limited  to  a  brief  half  hour  once  a  week, 
often  sandwiched  in  between  a  delayed  preaching  ser- 
vice and  an  American  Sunday  dinner.  Let  it  be  burned 
into  the  minds  of  the  leaders  of  the  Church  that  A 
CHURCH  WHICH  CANNOT  SAVE  ITS  OWN  CHIL- 
DREN CAN  NEVER  SAVE  THE  WORLD. 

"We  are  fast  drifting  into  a  cultured  paganism  and 
unless  the  Church  takes  important  steps  to  stem  the 
present  tide  of  indifference,  luxury,  and  commercial 
greed  this  country  will  soon  cease  to  be  a  Christian 
nation — if,  indeed,  a  country  in  which  three  out  of 
four  of  its  citizens  are  without  active  church  relations 
can  be  said  to  be  a  Christian  country  now." — Dr.  W.  S. 
Athearn. 


I. 

HOME  MISSION  OBJECTIVES 

Home  Missions  is  the  enterprise  through  which  the 
combined  force  of  Protestant  Christianity  is  projected 
on  the  spiritual  destitution  of  our  own  land.  Its  pur- 
pose is  to  bring  all  people  into  the  right  relation  to  Jesus 
Christ  as  Saviour  and  the  acknowledgment  of  his  claim 
to  their  obedience  and  service,  and  bring  the  redemptive 
power  of  the  gospel  to  bear  upon  the  life  of  the  nation 
in  all  its  phases. 

The  Old  Home  Missions  and  the  New.  In  fhe 
early  days  of  our  country  the  Home  Mission  task  in  con- 
trast with  the  present  was  a  very  simple  undertaking. 
It  was  largely  the  work  of  caring  for  our  own  people  as 
they  moved  into  new  communities  that  were  without 
gospel  privileges,  and  assisting  them  to  support  min- 
isters and  secure  houses  of  worship.  The  Home  Mis- 
sionary followed  the  expanding  frontier  lines  as  evan- 
gelist, church  builder,  pastor  and  teacher.  He  was  the 
pioneer  who  went  forth  in  the  advance  of  civilization, 
planting  the  church  and  the  school,  and  calling  the  people 
to  a  higher  intelligence  and  faith  in  God.  His  ministry 
had  to  do  largely  with  a  people  of  a  single  race  and 
tongue.  The  value  of  this  service  to  the  Church  and  the 
nation  cannot  be  estimated.  In  it  all  the  great  denomi- 
nations had  their  beginning.  The  thousands  of  churches 
that  bless  the  nation  with  their  conserving  and  uplifting 
influence  and  the  majority  of  the  educational  institu- 
tions are  the  fruits  of  this  work.  Leave  the  Home  Mis- 


12  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

sion  enterprise  out  of  the  past  century  of  our  nation's 
history  and  the  terms  "dark"  and  "benighted"  which 
are  now  applied  to  many  other  lands  might  justly  be 
applied  to  our  own. 

The  new  Home  Missions  is  multiplied  and  complex. 
America  is  a  growing,  changing  and  expanding  country. 
Every  ten  years  there  is  a  new  America  with  its  peculiar 
problems  and  perplexities.  New  frontiers  are  emerging, 
no  longer  frontiers  of  geography,  but  frontiers  of  need 
and  opportunity.  Vast  areas  of  spiritual  waste  and 
destitution  challenge  the  Church's  zeal  and  consecra- 
tion. The  present  Home  Mission  enterprise  has  to  do 
with  all  the  problems  of  evangelization  represented  in  a 
population  of  many  races,  divers  tongues  and  different 
faiths. 

Facts  to  Face.  There  are  certain  outstanding  facts 
in  connection  with  America's  religious  need  that  must 
be  stated  and  restated  again  and  again  if  the  Church  is 
to  be  brought  to  a  full  realization  of  the  magnitude  and 
the  far-reaching  importance  of  the  Home  Mission 
undertaking.  Never  in  the  history  of  the  Church  in 
America  has  there  been  a  time  when  there  was  needed  a 
fuller  knowledge  of  the  conditions  and  a  more  liberal 
support  for  the  task  confronting  the  Christian  forces 
in  this  country  than  in  this  day  of  unparalleled  need 
and  opportunity  for  service. 

Our  country's  religious  needs  have  been  presented  in 
this  striking  statement: 

"The  United  States  of  America  has  been  invaded 
by  three  enemy  armies  which  threaten  our  national 
existence:  First,  there  is  within  our  borders  an  army  of 
five  and  one-half  million  illiterates  above  nine  years  of 
age;  Second,  there  is  an  army  of  more  than  fifty  million 


HOME  MISSION  OBJECTIVES  is 

people  above  nine  years  of  age  who  are  not  identified 
with  any  church — Jewish,  Catholic  or  Protestant; 
Third,  there  is  an  army  of  twenty-seven  million  Pro- 
testant children  and  youth,  under  twenty-five  years  of 
age,  who  are  not  enrolled  in  any  Sunday  school  or  other 
institution  for  religious  training. 

"If  these  three  armies  should  form  in  double  column, 
three  feet  apart,  they  would  reach  one  and  one-fifths 
times  around  the  globe  at  the  equator.  If  they  should 
march  in  review  before  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  moving  double  column  at  the  rate  of  twenty- 
five  miles  a  day,  it  would  take  the  three  armies  three 
years  and  five  months  to  pass  the  President. 

"These  three  interlocking  armies  constitute  a  triple 
alliance  which  threatens  the  life  of  our  democracy. 
Patriotism  demands  that  every  loyal  American  enlist 
for  service  and  wage  three  great  campaigns — a  campaign 
of  Americanization,  a  campaign  of  Adult  Evangelism, 
and  a  campaign  for  the  Spiritual  Nurture  of  Child- 
hood."* 

In  the  Home  Mission  program  there  are  four  great 
objectives: 

1.  The  Salvation  of  the  Individual.  This  is  the 
supreme  purpose  of  all  mission  work.  All  other  results 
wait  on  this.  It  was  for  the  salvation  of  the  lost  that 
Christ,  looking  out  over  the  waiting  and  yearning 
multitudes,  said  to  his  disciples,  "The  harvest  truly  is 
plenteous  but  the  laborers  are  few  ...  go  your 
ways."  It  is  for  the  salvation  of  the  lost  that  mission- 
aries, exemplifying  the  spirit  of  the  Master,  have  gone 
to  every  land,  nation  and  tribe,  enduring  hardships, 
privations  and  pain,  that  they  "might  by  all  means 
save  some." 

In  the  vast  and  varied  Home  Mission  fields  the  Church 


"The  World  Survey. 


14  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

is  confronted  with  the  greatest  missionary  opportunity 
that  has  come  to  any  people  since  the  days  of  the  apostles. 
Of  the  fifty  millions  over  nine  years  of  age  out  of  church 
in  America,  twenty-one  million  are  in  the  bounds  of  the 
Southern  Presbyterian  Church.  Of  the  twenty-seven 
million  young  people  out  of  the  Sabbath  school,  thirteen 
millions  are  in  the  Southern  States.  Of  the  five  and  a 
half  million  illiterates,  three  million  are  in  the  South. 
Is  this  not  a  need,  vast  and  appealing?  The  fact  that 
there  are  many  churches  and  ministers  and  mission 
workers  does  not  in  the  least  relieve  our  Church  of  her 
responsibility,  nor  rob  her  of  her  opportunity  for  saving 
these  millions.  The  fact  that  these  people  live  in 
America  in  no  sense  makes  better  their  condition.  It 
is  not  a  question  of  residence,  but  of  spiritual  destitution. 
The  fact  is  they  are  our  neighbors,  and  they  are  not  being 
reached  for  Christ.  The  gospel  must  be  carried  to  the 
cities  and  hamlets  and  the  places  where  the  people  are. 
The  command  is,  "Into  every  city  and  place." 

2.  The  Security  of  Our  Country.  To  the  nation 
as  to  the  man,  to  be  without  God  is  to  be  without  hope. 
The  moral  and  spiritual  progress  of  the  nation  must  keep 
pace  with  its  material  development.  The  Church  has 
made  America  what  it  is,  and  only  an  enlargement  of 
the  Church  can  make  it  better.  The  Church  is  the 
salt  of  the  earth.  Salt  is  the  thing  that  saves.  If 
Sodom  had  contained  a  church  of  ten  members  that 
great  city  would  have  been  spared.  No  one  can  esti- 
mate the  power  of  the  church  in  the  development  and 
preservation  of  American  life.  The  Church  has  been  the 
most  important  factor  in  bringing  America  to  its  present 
position  of  influence  among  the  nations.  It  is  the  one 


HOME  MISSION  OBJECTIVES  15 

institution  that  stands  for  everything  that  is  right  and 
is  opposed  to  everything  that  is  wrong. 

There  was  never  greater  need  for  the  Church  and  the 
things  for  which  it  stands  than  at  the  present  time. 
Many  dangers  are  threatening  our  national  security. 
R.  H.  Edmonds  says: 

"It  would  be  folly  to  shut  our  eyes  to  the  possibilities 
of  evil  which  surround  us.  We  are  too  prone,  ostrich- 
like,  to  close  our  eyes  to  the  dangers  about  us.  We  lay 
unto  ourselves  the  flattering  unction  that  America  is 
different  from  other  lands  and  that  we  shall  never  have 
to  face  the  dangers  which  have  brought  chaos  in  many 
parts  of  Europe.  We  are  constantly  saying  to  ourselves, 
'It  is  impossible  that  the  things  which  have  happened 
in  Europe  should  happen  in  America.'  But  that  which 
seems  impossible  often  becomes  the  possible. 

"In  the  early  summer  of  1914  it  would  have  seemed 
absolutely  impossible  that  within  a  few  months  all  of 
Europe  would  be  one  vast  slaughter  house  and  that 
millions  and  tens  of  millions  of  men  would  be  engaged 
in  the  greatest  death  grapple  in  human  history.  Even 
then  it  would  have  seemed  impossible,  beyond  the  dreams 
of  the  wildest  visionary,  that  two  million  American  sol- 
diers would  have  to  fight  on  the  battlefields  of  France 
to  save  civilization  from  the  destructive  powers  of  bar- 
barians and  atheists.  From  the  beginning  of  human 
history  the  impossible  is  the  thing  that  has  become  a 
reality."* 

The  enemy  was  never  more  active  nor  were  there  ever 
so  many  forces  of  evil  at  work  to  undermine  the  founda- 
tions of  our  national  greatness. 

(a)  The  Bible  is  Discredited.  The  Bible  is  the  Magna 
Charta  of  all  free  people.  It  is  the  foundation  on  which 

*Manufacturers  Record. 


16  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

our  nation  was  built,  and  America  will  be  strong  and 
prosperous  as  the  teachings  of  God's  Word  are  received, 
believed  and  obeyed.  In  all  our  cities  and  in  many 
country  places  there  is  an  insidious  campaign  against  the 
integrity  of  the  Scriptures.  This  attack  upon  the  au- 
thority of  the  Bible  began  in  Germany.  It  is  one  of  the 
many  crimes  for  which  she  must  answer.  In  the  last 
analysis  it  is  an  attack  upon  the  deity  of  Christ.  To 
question  God's  Book  is  to  question  the  author.  To 
doubt  God  is  to  doubt  His  Son.  Christ  stood  across 
the  pathway  of  German  conquest.  Thus  would  Ger- 
man philosophy  and  German  militarism  put  Christ, 
whose  teachings  convicted  and  condemned  their  evil 
purpose,  out  of  the  way. 

Germany  is  an  illustration  of  the  truth  that  what  you 
would  put  in  your  nation  you  must  put  in  your  schools. 
For  three  generations  the  children  and  youth  of  the  Ger- 
man Empire  were  taught  a  pagan  political  philosophy, 
void  of  God,  Jesus  Christ,  the  Ten  Commandments, 
and  the  Golden  Rule.  In  1914  sixty-seven  million  Ger- 
man people  were  ready  to  go  forth  at  the  command  of 
their  Kaiser  to  conquer  the  world.  The  full  fruit  of 
the  seed  sown  in  the  schools  of  that  nation  is  seen  in  the 
devastations  of  Belgium  and  France.  The  war  is  over, 
but  the  teaching  that  caused  the  war  is  not  over.  To 
quote  again  from  R.  H.  Edmonds: 

"There  is  spreading  over  our  land  the  accursed 
atheistic  teaching  of  German  philosophy,  more  powerful 
for  evil  than  were  all  Germany's  armies  and  navies,  and 
if  America  does  not  give  heed  to  this  menace  its  downfall 
will  be  as  certain  as  was  Germany's." 

If  America  is  to  be  a  fit  place  in  which  to  live  and  is 


HOME  MISSION  OBJECTIVES  17 

to  fulfill  her  divinely-appointed  service  to  the  world,  the 
Bible  principles  of  truth  and  righteousness  must  be 
wrought  into  the  warp  and  woof  of  our  country's  life. 
But  Protestant  Christianity  has  looked  on  with  careless 
indifference,  while  the  Catholic  and  the  Jew  have  joined 
with  the  infidel  and  the  atheist  in  the  effort  to  keep  the 
Bible  out  of  the  public  schools.  Millions  of  American 
children,  the  future  leaders  of  the  State  and  nation,  are 
allowed  to  grow  to  manhood  with  no  knowledge  of  God 
or  righteousness  or  a  judgment  to  come.  Whoever 
would  keep  the  Bible  from  the  people  or  weaken  their 
faith  in  its  authority  is  the  herald  of  a  decadent  civiliza- 
tion, the  prophet  of  national  disaster  and  the  forerunner 
of  a  reign  of  lawlessness.  The  nation  that  banishes 
God's  Holy  Word  has  written  its  own  doom. 

(b)  The  Sabbath  is  Desecrated.  The  maintenance  of 
the  Christian  Sabbath  lies  at  the  root  of  all  national 
morality  and  civil  liberty.  The  Sabbath  is  the  only 
safeguard  of  religion,  and  religion  is  the  surest  stay  of  the 
State.  John  Ruskin  said  that  the  thirty  minutes  on 
Sunday  when  the  man  of  God  stands  forth  to  speak  to 
ignorant  and  sinful  men  are  the  most  important  thirty 
minutes  known  to  society  and  civilization.  About 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  Voltaire  prophesied 
that  before  the  close  of  that  century  Christianity  would 
have  disappeared  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  He  ad- 
vised his  followers  that  if  they  would  destroy  Chris- 
tianity they  must  begin  with  the  Christian  Sabbath. 
Christianity  and  the  Sabbath  stand  or  fall  together. 

"The  rule  is,  where  there  is  no  church  and  no  church- 
going  there  is  no  Sabbath,  and  where  there  is  no  Sabbath 
and  no  Sabbath-keeping  there  is  no  religion,  and  where 


18  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

there  is  no  religion  there  is  no  God,  and  where  there  is 
no  God  there  is  no  conscience,  and  where  there  is  no 
conscience  there  is  no  respect  for  the  rights  of  men,  and 
where  there  is  no  respect  for  the  rights  of  men  there 
is  no  security  for  life  or  property.  Now  take  religion, 
God,  conscience,  respect  for  the  rights  of  men,  and  pro- 
tection of  life  and  property  out  of  the  American  republic, 
and  just  how  much  of  what  is  left  would  be  worth 
having?"* 

A  reliable  authority  states  that  four  million  people 
in  this  country  are  making  merchandise  on  the  Lord's 
Day,  and  that  twenty  times  that  number  spend  the  day 
in  mere  worldly  pleasure-seeking.  Well  may  we  cry 
out  for  America,  as  Pope  Pius  said  concerning  France 
in  his  day:  "Lose  not  a  day,  not  even  an  hour,  nor  even 
a  moment;  go  and  tell  France  that  if  she  would  be  saved 
she  must  return  to  the  sanctification  of  the  Lord's 
Day."  When  the  Sabbath  is  gone,  honesty  is  gone, 
justice  is  gone,  and  that  which  has  been  our  nation's 
glory  is  gone. 

(c)  False  Faiths  Are  Active.  It  is  the  teaching  of  his- 
tory that  the  religion  that  holds  the  conscience  of  a  na- 
tion will  determine  the  civilization.  The  greatness 
and  strength  of  America  rests  on  Christian  principles 
and  Christian  character.  Yet  it  is  a  fact  that  countless 
multitudes  in  our  land  are  under  the  sway  of  religious 
conceptions  that  are  openly  antagonistic  to  the  Word  of 
God  and  the  Christian  faith.  These  religions  are  all 
kinds  and  varieties.  Some  are  imported  and  some  are 
the  products  of  our  own  country — Brahmans,  Con- 
fucianists,  Buddhists,  Mohammedans,  Mormons, 
Theosophy,  Christian  Science,  New  Thought,  Atheism, 

*Dr.  David  Gregg,  "Makers  of  the  American  Republic." 


HOME  MISSION  OBJECTIVES  19 

Infidelity,  Bolshevism.  While  members  of  Christian 
churches  have  been  sitting  back  with  a  sense  of  security 
in  their  Christianity,  the  organized  forces  of  evil  are 
actively  engaged  in  denying  the  deity  and  authority  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  attempting  to  overthrow  the  Christian 
Church.  A  writer  in  the  Missionary  Review  of  the 
World  describes  this  campaign  for  the  destruction  of 
Christianity: 

"Several  infidel  organizations  in  New  York  City  are 
known  by  various  titles  that  do  not  indicate  their  real 
character.  Their  favorite  methods  of  attack  are: 

"First,  aggressive  outdoor  meetings,  at  Madison 
Square  and  in  all  the  principal  thoroughfares  at  noon 
and  at  night  whenever  the  weather  permits.  At  these 
meetings  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Bible  are  held  up  to 
ridicule,  and  many  blasphemies  are  uttered. 

"Distribution  of  infidel  literature  is  a  second  method  of 
attack.  Books  and  pamphlets  written  by  Tom  Paine, 
Robert  G.  Ingersoll,  Voltaire,  and  others  are  widely 
distributed  to  the  young  men  who  make  up  most  of  the 
audiences,  and  who  eagerly  buy  almost  anything  that 
is  offered  in  that  line.  A  monthly  magazine  is  also  pub- 
lished for  the  purpose  of  'educating  the  public  and  free- 
ing them  from  the  bondage  of  religion.' 

"A  third  form  of  this  Satanic  activity  is  the  debate, 
held  sometimes  at  the  public  squares  and  sometimes  in 
halls.  The  favorite  themes  at  these  meetings  are:  The 
Resurrection,  The  Virgin  Birth,  The  Trinity,  The  Deity 
of  Christ,  and  The  Authenticity  of  the  Bible.  These 
debates  are  often  carried  on  by  educated  and  able  men, 
who  display  considerable  familiarity  with  the  subjects. 
The  enemy  of  God  has  able  generals. 

"Another  method  employed  to  spread  infidelity  is  the 
establishment  of  'Sunday-schools.'  Boys  and  girls  of 
the  neighborhood  are  brought  together  and  are  taught 
that  the  Bible  is  not  true  and  that  Jesus  Christ  was  either 
a  mere  man  or  is  the  mere  creation  of  somebody's  dis- 


20  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

torted    imagination.     What    harvest    must    we    expect 
from  such  seed-sowing? 

"This  aggressive  infidelity  and  agnosticism  are  a  chal- 
lenge to  the  Christian  Church  to  proclaim  the  gospel  by 
word  and  deed  to  the  unchurched  and  unsaved  multi- 
tudes of  men,  women  and  children  in  our  cities." 

Mormonism  is  an  American  disgrace  and  one  of  the 
most  subtle  and  dangerous  of  all  the  enemies  of  our 
Christian  civilization.  It  has  been  described  as  a  "wolf 
in  sheep's  clothing.  Calling  itself  a  church,  it  is  in  fact 
an  absolute  monarchy  and  under  the  cloak  of  religion  it 
both  teaches  and  practices  crime  and  treason.  Pretend- 
ing to  be  loyal  to  American  institutions,  it  is  in  sworn 
disloyalty  to  our  republic." 

The  Mormon  Church  is  not  yet  a  century  old.  It  was 
organized  in  1830  in  New  York  State  with  six  members, 
and  in  1920  had  multiplied  these  by  one  hundred  thou- 
sand. Its  missionaries  to  the  number  of  four  thousand 
go  about  this  country  visiting  at  least  three  million 
homes  annually  and,  according  to  its  own  claims,  added 
eighty  thousand  converts  in  one  year,  and  all  from  evan- 
gelical churches.  Mormonism  is  literally  a  "robber  of 
churches."  The  first  theft  occurred  when  Joseph  Smith, 
its  founder,  converted  four  members  of  his  family  who 
were  members  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  From  At- 
lanta, the  Southeastern  headquarters,  hordes  of  mis- 
sionaries go  out  all  over  the  South,  not  only  men  but 
good-looking  young  ladies  as  well.  Its  missionaries 
creep  into  the  Sunday-schools,  into  church  choirs,  and 
even  into  the  pulpits  of  evangelical  churches,  secretly 
spreading  its  doctrine  in  ever-widening  circles.  Fre- 
quently its  women  missionaries  get  into  the  homes, 
schools  and  Bible  classes.  It  is  time  that  Christian  peo- 


HOME  MISSION  OBJECTIVES 


21 


pie  who  love  the  Church  and  the  home  were  aroused  to 
this  danger  which  threatens  the  very  foundations  of  the 
republic. 

(d)  The  Growth  of  the  City.  The  movement  of  pop- 
ulation cityward  is  one  of  the  most  striking  facts  in  the 
progress  of  modern  civilization.  America  is  rapidly  be- 
coming a  nation  of  cities.  From  town  and  country 
and  beyond  the  sea  there  is  a  resistless  stream.  Large 
cities  are  becoming  larger.  Great  cities  are  becoming 
greater.  If  the  rate  of  the  movement  of  population 
from  country  to  city  which  prevailed  from  1900  to  1910 
continues  until  1940,  there  will  then  be  in  the  United 
States  twenty-one  million  more  people  in  our  cities 
than  outside  of  them.  In  the  cities  are  massed  the 


"WHERE  CROSS  THE  CROWDED  WAYS  OF  LIFE' 


22  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

forces  that  rule,  the  educational,  social,  political  and 
financial  powers.  If  the  nation  is  to  be  saved  the  citv 
must  be  saved.  Missionary  effort  has  not  increased 
with  the  population.  The  cities  are  relatively  un- 
churched. In  many  of  them  there  are  fewer  churches 
than  there  were  ten  years  ago.  Population  grows  faster 
than  Protestant  membership.  It  has  been  pointed  out 
that  in  two  score  and  more  of  our  largest  cities  the 
Church  has  grown  less  than  two-thirds  as  rapidly  as  the 
population,  and  the  larger  the  city  the  fewer  are  the 
proportionate  number  of  churches. 

"If  every  church  of  every  kind  in  New  York  City  were 
crowded  to  the  doors  on  Sabbath  morning,  and  all  the 
people  had  started  to  church,  there  would  be  three 
million  of  people  on  the  street  who  could  not  secure  an 
entrance  to  a  house  of  worship. 

"If  you  take  all  the  Protestant  population  of  New  York 
City  and  add  to  it  all  the  Roman  Catholics,  the  Greeks 
and  the  Christians  of  every  nation  in  it,  you  have  less 
than  one-third  of  the  entire  population.  Nearly  one- 
third  is  Hebrew  and  more  than  one-third  is  atheist, 
infidel  or  nothing  at  all.  There  are  100,000  nominal 
Protestants  in  the  city  with  no  church  connection  what- 
ever. Only  about  eight  per  cent  of  the  population  are 
members  of  Protestant  churches."* 

In  1910  thirty-three  of  our  largest  cities  were  more 
foreign  than  American — if  by  American  we  mean 
American-born  ancestry.  We  are  told  by  those  who 
claim  to  know  that  the  American  city  is  the  worst  gov- 
erned in  the  world.  Vice  and  sin  and  crime  abound. 
The  cry  of  darkest  London  that  broke  the  heart  of  Wil- 
liam Booth  is  not  more  pathetic  in  its  appeal  than  the 

*Stelzle,  "American  Social  and  Religious  Conditions." 


HOME  MISSION  OBJECTIVES  23 

cry  that  comes  from  the  submerged  millions  in  our  own 
cities. 

"I  could  tell  how  Alexander  Duff,  who  certainly 
knew  the  abysses  of  vice  in  vice-ridden  India,  if  any 
observer  might  be  said  to  know — I  could  tell  how  Duff 
came  to  this  fair  land  in  1854  and,  after  a  visit  to  the 
slums  of  Philadelphia,  left  this  testimony  on  record: 
'Anything  worse  I  have  never  seen.  Such  vileness,  such 
debasement,  such  drunkenness,  such  beastliness,  such 
unblushing  shamelessness,  such  glorying  in  their  crimi- 
nality, such  God-defying  blasphemousness,  in  short, 
such  hellishness,  I  never  saw  surpassed  in  any  land,  and 
I  hope  I  never  shall.  Indeed,  out  of  perdition,  it  is  not 
conceivable  how  worse  could  be."51 

If  the  city  is  to  be  saved  it  must  be  saved  by  the 
Church.  Legislation  will  not  cleanse.  Libraries  will 
not  redeem.  Social  programs  will  not  meet  the  need. 
Only  the  gospel  of  Christ  can  do  this. 

(e)  Disloyal  Propaganda.  The  following  statements 
are  taken  from  an  address  by  Dr.  Newell  Dwight  Hillis 
on  "Alienating  Americans  from  America": 

"All  patriots  now  realize  that  the  German  spark  has 
kindled  a  world  conflagration.  The  attempted  revolu- 
tion in  Seattle,  the  war  made  by  the  Bolshevists  of 
Centralia,  Washington,  upon  their  returned  soldiers, 
the  organization  in  Detroit  of  a  normal  school  for  the 
training  of  Bolshevist  orators  and  organizers,  the  dis- 
covery of  hundreds  of  Soviets  in  our  great  American 
cities,  the  sudden  increase  of  radical  newspapers,  the 
seizure  of  pistols,  rifles,  bombshells,  in  various  I.  W.  W. 
headquarters,  and  the  adoption  of  this  watchword  by 
the  radicals,  'Down  with  God,  government  and  prop- 
erty,' represent  events  and  forces  big  with  peril.  Plainly 

*Dr.  J.  E.  McAfee,  "Missions  Striking  Home." 


24  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

an  invisible  enemy  is  carrying  on  a  secret  battle  against 
our  institutions. 

"The  Department  of  Justice  has  warned  the  American 
people  that  there  are  at  least  300,000  people  in  our  coun- 
try who  hate  the  republic,  and  are  seeking  to  overthrow 
its  free  institutions. 

"The  real  gravity  of  the  situation  is  revealed  by  the 
fact  that  there  is  an  organized  propaganda  for  the  aliena- 
tion of  Americans  from  America.  In  every  industrial 
center  of  every  State  the  Radicals  are  engaged  in  the 
systematic  teaching  of  revolution.  Multitudes  of  young 
soldiers,  newly  returned  from  France,  have  been  made 
the  subjects  of  special  efforts  by  Radicals  who  were 
trying  to  undermine  the  patriotism  of  our  young  men. 
One  event  and  experience  will  illustrate  many.  In 
an  oil  town  in  West  Virginia  a  young  soldier  recently 
returned  from  France  and  employed  as  assistant  to  an 
oil  well  expert  in  West  Virginia  took  advantage  of  a  lull 
in  the  conversation  as  to  the  state  of  this  country,  saying, 
'Never  again  for  me!  Never  again  for  me!  The  next 
time  the  plutocrats  can  pull  their  own  chestnuts  out  of 
the  fire!'  Further  questioning  developed  the  fact  that 
the  head  man  was  a  radical  Socialist,  and  a  soap-box 
orator,  and  only  incidentally  an  oil  well  expert.  The 
older  man  had  spent  his  evenings,  for  three  months, 
filling  the  mind  of  the  young  soldier  with  his  pet  theories. 
Slowly  he  had  killed  patriotism  in  that  boy's  soul. 
One  of  the  latter's  friends  said  that  since  his  return  from 
France,  and  becoming  an  assistant  to  the  well  digger,  he 
had  become  a  changed  man.  Washington  thought 
that  the  white  flower  of  patriotism  was  the  sweetest 
blossom  in  the  garden  of  the  soul,  but  some  influence  had 
descended  like  a  black  frost  upon  this  flower,  and  slain 
it  forever. 

"In  a  single  high  school  its  principal  found  that  one- 
third  of  the  students  in  this  boys'  high  school  believe 
that  the  political  institutions  of  our  country  should  be 
overthrown  and  replaced  by  an  economic  Socialist  gov- 
ernment in  Washington.  In  the  hands  of  these  boys 


HOME  MISSION  OBJECTIVES  25 

were  the  Soviet  catechism,  written  by  a  thoroughly 
discredited  American  correspondent  who  had  spent  a 
few  weeks  in  Petrograd  and  Moscow. 

"Life's  critical  years  are  from  eight  to  fifteen.  Then 
the  child  is  wax  to  receive  and  steel  to  hold.  Melt 
your  crimson  glass,  and  while  it  is  hot  the  chaff  and 
straw  will  stick,  but  when  it  cools,  no  hand  can  cleanse 
the  ruby  glass.  If  these  enemies  of  society  succeed  in 
drilling  their  anarchistic  principles  into  our  boys  and 
girls,  the  future  will  be  lost  before  the  battle  begins." 

(/)  Decline  in  Family  Religion.  The  nation  has  no 
greater  peril  than  this.  If  Christian  people  were  loyal 
to  their  duty  as  Christians  and  as  citizens,  the  dangers 
that  threaten  our  national  well-being  would  soon  dis- 
appear. But  thousands  of  people  brought  up  in  Chris- 
tian homes  have  forsaken  the  Church  and  are  living  in 
practical  neglect  of  the  claims  of  Christ  to  their  influence 
and  service.  A  life  of  religious  indifference  is  a  blow  at 
our  best  American  ideals.  Our  government  was  es- 
tablished in  the  name  of  God  by  God-fearing  men.  The 
sessions  of  the  Continental  Convention  in  Philadelphia 
were,  upon  motion  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  opened  with 
religious  exercises  and  prayer  to  God.  If  we  depart 
from  ihe  spirit  and  practice  of  our  forefathers  we  do  so 
at  our  own  and  our  country's  peril. 

Henry  W.  Grady  was  passing  the  White  House  in 
Washington  with  a  friend.  He  said,  "That  is  the  home 
of  my  nation."  After  spending  a  few  days  as  a  gurst 
on  a  Southern  plantation  where  the  Bible  was  read  and 
the  family  and  servants  gathered  for  morning  and  even- 
ing prayer,  he  said,  "I  was  mistaken  when  I  said  that 
glistening  pile  of  marble  in  Washington  is  the  home  of 
my  nation.  The  home  of  my  nation  is  that  home  where 
the  Bible  is  read;  where  Jesus  is  loved;  and  where  chil- 


26  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

dren  are  taught  to  pray."  In  these  days  of  rush  and 
hurry  family  worship  is  almost  a  thing  of  the  past.  A 
representative  of  one  of  the  great  denominations  states 
that  not  five  per  cent  of  its  members  have  family  worship 
in  any  form,  and  even  the  blessing  at  the  table  is  rapidly 
disappearing.  The  Chairman  of  the  Assembly's  Com- 
mittee on  Sabbath  and  Family  Religion  estimates  that 
not  over  twelve  per  cent  of  the  homes  in  our  Church 
have  the  family  altar.  This  modern  and  efficient  age 
in  which  we  live  smiles  at  the  time  when  "the  family 
altar  stood  as  the  opening  and  closing  gates  of  the  day." 
But  the  Wall  Street  Journal  says  that  what  America 
needs  is  just  that.  It  is  not  a  better  banking  system 
that  will  save  us,  nor  a  higher  tariff,  nor  better  laws;  but 
a  revival  of  the  old-fashion  religion  which  never  thought 
of  omitting  family  worship  even  in  the  rush  of  harvest. 
Few  law-breakers  come  from  homes  like  that.  The  glory 
of  the  nation  is  the  character  of  its  homes.  The  homes 
that  make  a  nation  great  and  strong  are  the  homes  where 
the  Bible  is  read  and  Christ  is  honored. 

He  is  not  a  super-patriot  who  makes  patriotic  speeches 
and  says  fulsome  things  about  the  flag.  The  greatest 
patriot  is  he  who  seeks  to  cast  out  all  the  evils  and  vices 
that  injure  and  weaken  and  to  secure  for  his  country 
everything  that  is  noblest  and  best.  Patriotism  and 
Christianity  unite  in  the  Home  Mission  appeal.  If  the 
Church  is  to  win  its  battle  for  the  conservation  of  the 
nation's  ideals  and  morals,  it  must  have  the  loyal  and 
enthusiastic  support  of  every  man  who  calls  himself  a 
Christian.  Religion  is  the  only  defense  against  un- 
godliness and  immorality.  "Our  country  for  Christ" 
is  the  only  worthy  motto  of  every  true  Christian. 


HOME  MISSION  OBJECTIVES  27 

3.  The  Growth  of  the  Denomination.  Home 
Missions  is  the  life  of  the  Church.  This  fact  finds 
abundant  illustrations  in  the  history  of  every  denomina- 
tion that  exists  to-day,  or  that  has  ceased  to  be.  In  pro- 
portion as  churches  have  stressed  the  work  of  Home  Mis- 
sions have  they  grown  in  numbers  and  increased  in 
strength ;  as  they  have  neglected  the  work  of  expansion 
have  their  numbers  lessened  and  their  resources  di- 
minished. When  a  church  ceases  to  go  forward  it  be- 
gins to  go  backward.  It  is  either  advance  or  retreat. 
"For  unto  everyone  that  hath  shall  be  given  and  he 
shall  have  abundance;  but  from  him  that  hath  not  shall 
be  taken  away  even  that  which  he  hath."  It  is  addition 
or  subtraction,  and  this  principle  is  as  true  in  the  life  of 
the  Church  as  in  the  life  of  the  individual. 

The  present  position  of  power  and  influence  which 
our  Church  holds  among  the  great  religious  forces  in 
this  country  has  been  attained  through  its  Home  Mis- 
sion agencies.  When  the  Southern  Presbyterian  Church 
began  its  existence  as  a  separate  denomination,  the  con- 
gregations were  few  in  number  with  not  many  members. 
As  near  as  can  be  ascertained  the  total  did  not  reach 
more  than  eleven  hundred  churches,  with  about  seventy 
thousand  members.  In  the  regions  west  of  the  Missis- 
sippi River  there  were  considerably  less  than  five  thousand 
communicants  in  one  hundred  and  twenty  weak  and 
scattered  congregations.  After  sixty  years  of  Home 
Mission  endeavor  the  churches  east  of  the  Mississippi 
River  have  multiplied  manyfold,  and  west  of  it  through 
the  same  agency  have  been  developed  the  great  Synods 
of  Arkansas,  Missouri,  Oklahoma  and  Texas,  among 
the  strongest  and  most  influential  in  the  Assembly, 


28  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

having  more  members  than  there  were  in  the  whole 
C  hurch  sixty  years  ago. 

A  careful  study  of  the  records  reveals  the  interesting 
fact  that  over  four-fifths  of  our  present  congregations 
were  planted  and  fostered  by  Home  Mission  funds; 
and  that  the  net  gain  in  membership  each  year  equals 
the  increase  made  in  our  Home  Mission  churches. 
Just  in  proportion  as  the  work  of  Home  Missions  has 
been  pressed,  has  our  Church  advanced.  If  it  were 
not  for  the  increases  resulting  from  this  aggressive  work, 
our  Church  would  have  become  steadily  smaller  and  the 
place  which  it  now  holds  among  the  great  denomina- 
tions would  have  been  impossible.  Home  Missions  is 
the  agency  not  only  for  bringing  the  gospel  in  its  con- 
verting, uplifting  and  conserving  power  to  bear  upon  the 
destitution  of  our  land,  but  it  is  the  enterprise  through 
which  the  church  is  enlarged  and  strengthened.  In 
saving  America  the  church  is  saving  itself! 

4.  The  Evangelization  of  the  World.  The  Home 
Mission  enterprise  has  a  wider  purpose  than  the  saving 
of  America.  Its  ultimate  aim  is  world  redemption. 
The  true  Home  Missionary  is  not  provincial,  but  is  cos- 
mopolitan in  his  outlook.  America  is  to  be  saved  for 
its  own  sake  and  for  the  world's  sake.  It  is  the  judg- 
ment of  mission  leaders  everywhere  that  a  Christian 
America  will  make  a  Christian  world,  and  that  an  un- 
Christian  America  will  mean  a  world  continuing  in  dark- 
ness and  sin.  There  is  no  work  of  vaster  import  be- 
fore the  Church  of  Christ  than  that  of  Christianizing 
this  great  land.  A  member  of  Congress  recently  de- 
clared: "The  next  five  years  will  shape  the  next  five  cen- 
turies. The  United  States  will  shape  the  next  five 
years.  The  church  will  determine  the  character  of  the 


HOME  MISSION  OBJECTIVES  29 

United  States."  The  hope  of  the  world  is  in  America 
and  her  idea  of  Christianity.  Home  Missions  will 
determine  the  destiny  of  the  human  race. 

Politically,  commercially,  religiously  America  touches 
all  lands.  Is  she  prepared  to  render  her  divinely- 
appointed  service  of  evangelist  to  the  nations?  She 
has  the  material  resources,  but  has  she  the  spiritual 
equipment  and  the  moral  power  that  all  of  her  contacts 
with  other  peoples  will  be  healing  and  helpful?  Before 
the  great  war  twenty-six  nations  became  republics 
following  our  own,  but  how  many  have  become  Chris- 
tian following  the  example  and  leadership  of  the  United 
States?  Can  America  commend  Christianity  to  the 
non-Christian  lands  in  a  way  that  they  will  desire  it 
when  two-thirds  of  the  American  people  are  living  out- 
side the  enumerated  Christian  ranks  and  do  not  think 
enough  of  Jesus  Christ  and  his  Program  to  unite  with 
his  church?  Dr.  Josiah  Strong  says  truly: 

"The  greatest  hindrances  to  the  conversion  of  the 
heathen  world  come  from  nominally  Christian  lands. 
If  America  were  thoroughly  Christian,  it  would  not  take 
long  for  such  an  object  lesson  to  work  the  conviction 
and  conversion  of  all  heathen  peoples.  If  our  American 
Christianity  cannot  purify  our  politics  and  elevate  our 
ethical  standards  of  business  and  establish  just  rela- 
tions between  races  and  classes  in  our  own  midst,  with 
our  increased  facility  of  communication,  which  is  making 
the  whole  world  a  neighborhood  and  publishing  our  na- 
tional sins  on  the  heathen  housetop,  this  failure  will  soon 
paralyze  our  missionary  efforts  in  all  the  world  and  sub- 
ject our  missionaries  to  the  taunt,  'Go  back  to  America, 
and  first  cast  the  beam  out  of  the  eyes  of  your  own 
countrymen  and  then  come  and  cast  the  mote  out  of 


What  the  world  has  been  waiting  for  through  the  cen- 
turies is  a  sample  Christian  nation.  America  has  the 
best  chance  of  being  that  sample.  The  only  kind  of 
Christianity  that  is  going  ultimately  to  succeed  any- 
where is  the  kind  that  works  in  our  own  land  with  our 
own  people.  A  vigorous  and  sustained  Home  Mission 
campaign  will  lift  the  whole  level  of  our  Christian  living 
and  make  our  national  testimony  count  for  Christ  and 
his  kingdom  throughout  the  world. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  Define  the  Home  Mission  enterprise. 

2.  Compare  the  old  Home  Missions  and  the  new. 

3.  What  are  the  four  great  Home  Mission  objectives? 

4.  Name  six  perils  that  threaten  the  nation. 

5.  Which  do  you  consider  the  most  dangerous? 

6.  Are  there  other  perils  not  enumerated? 

7.  How  are  these  evils  to  be  corrected? 

8.  What  is  the  relation  of  Home  Missions  to  denominational 

growth? 

9.  In  what  way  is  Home  Missions  fundamental  to  world  evan- 

gelization? 

10.  What  sentence  do  you  consider  the  strongest  indictment  of 

Christian  America  in  the  entire  chapter? 

11.  What  is  the  population  of  your  town?    The  church  member- 

ship? 


CHAPTER  II. 
LAYING  FOUNDATIONS 


The  conversion  of  America  is  vital  to  the  conversion 
of  the  world. 

It  is  given  to  the  Church  in  America  not  only  to 
influence,  but  to  determine  the  destiny  of  the  human 
race. 

America  is  to  world-wide  Christianity  what  the  Amer- 
ican troops  were  to  the  Allies.  Is  American  Christian- 
ity vital  enough  and  spiritual  enough  to  turn  the  tide? 

"The  next  five  years  will  mould  the  next  five  cen- 
turies. The  United  States  will  shape  the  next  five 
years.  The  Church  will  determine  the  character  of 
the  United  States." — -Member  of  Congress. 

"Surely  the  future  looks  black  enough,  yet  it  holds  a 
hope,  a  single  hope.  One,  and  one  power  only,  can 
arrest  the  descent  and  save  us.  That  is  the  Christian 
religion.  Democracy  is  but  a  side  issue.  The  para- 
mount issue  underlying  the  idea  of  democracy  is  the 
religion  of  Christ  and  Him  crucified,  the  bed  rock  of 
civilization." — Henry  Watlerson. 

"What  is  concerning  me  is  the  task  before  the  Church 
of  God.  I  trust  that  you  will  go  back  to  your  own  coun- 
try and  your  own  people,  and  in  every  way  that  you  can 
urge  upon  them  that  in  the  days,  the  terrible  days 
ahead  of  us,  the  days  after  the  war,  the  Church  shall 
not  fail." — General  Byng  to  Christian  America. 


II. 

LAYING  FOUNDATIONS 

There  has  been  considerable  discussion  in  recent  years 
about  the  conservation  of  the  nation's  natural  resources. 
This  is  a  matter  that  should  give  us  great  concern.  We 
are  proud  of  our  country  and  its  wonderful  wealth. 
Columns  of  figures  could  be  multiplied  to  show  that  in 
land,  mines,  forests,  water  power,  it  is  the  richest  na- 
tion on  earth.  In  fact  the  terms  "boundless"  and  "in- 
exhaustible" have  been  so  generally  applied  to  the  na- 
tion's wealth  that  little  thought  has  been  given  to  the 
necessity  of  its  conservation.  But  there  has  been  an 
awakening.  We  are  being  warned  that  there  is  a  limit 
to  all  things  material.  The  wonderful  riches  with  which 
God  has  blessed  us  must  be  safeguarded  and  developed, 
else  they  will  be  exhausted  and  our  country  materially 
impoverished.  Our  generation  must  not  by  reason  of 
our  prodigality  and  wastefulness  impoverish  future  gen- 
erations. The  blessings  which  one  generation  enjoys 
are  to  be  held  in  trust  for  generations  yet  to  come. 

This  same  principle  of  stewardship  holds  true  with 
respect  to  the  nation's  spiritual  resources.  It  is  vastly 
more  important  to  the  nation's  future  well-being  that 
the  moral  values  be  conserved  and  developed.  The  se- 
curity of  a  nation  does  not  rest  upon  the  number  of  its 
square  miles,  but  upon  the  number  of  its  square  men. 
It  is  moral  values  and  not  material  resources  that  deter- 
mine a  nation's  greatness.  It  matters  little  if  we  are 
increased  in  goods  and  our  sons  decay.  Bigness  must 
not  be  confused  with  greatness,  or  riches  with  nobility 


34  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

of  character.     Bigness  is  an  attribute  of  matter;  great- 
ness is  an  attribute  of  mind. 

"Not  gold,  but  only  man  can  make 

A  people  great  and  strong; 
Men  who  for  truth  and  honor's  sake 
Stand  forth  and  suffer  long. 

"Brave  men  who  work  while  others  sleep, 

Who  dare  while  others  fly — 
They  build  a  nation's  pillars  deep 
And  lift  them  to  the  sky." 

The  Place  of  Christian  Leadership.  The  work 
of  home  missions  has  been  one  of  the  greatest  factors 
in  the  development  of  our  country.  Through  the 
agency  of  the  Church,  the  school  and  the  home,  it  has 
sought  to  make  the  nation  great  by  making  the  people 
righteous.  It  would  be  impossible  to  overestimate  the 
service  of  the  Christian  missionary  and  the  Christian 
minister  in  the  progress  and  preservation  of  our  nation's 
life. 

"Every  line  of  human  activity  depends  upon  character 
for  efficiency  and  stability.  The  rise  and  fall  of  the 
nation  depends  upon  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  people  who 
compose  it.  Jesus  made  the  transformed  individual 
the  starting  point  for  the  civilization  which  he  launched 
upon  the  world.  Every  business  depends  upon  char- 
acter to  give  it  solidity.  The  stability  of  the  nation 
depends  upon  the  character  of  its  people.  You  cannot 
build  a  marble  house  out  of  mud.  The  church  is  God's 
agency  for  the  production  of  character  and  the  minister 
is  the  leader  in  this  work.  Civilization  has  never  failed 
to  go  down  when  the  morals  of  the  people  declined. 

"This  is  a  matter  of  history  so  plain  that  he  who  runs 
can  read.  The  work  of  the  pulpit  is  fundamental  to 


LAYING  FOUNDATIONS  35 

business  because  it  creates  honesty  and  integrity.  It 
is  fundamental  to  national  life  because  it  creates  moral 
stability.  The  preacher  may  not  be  a  politician,  but 
he  is  one  of  the  mightiest  forces  in  building  up  the  moral 
sentiment  which  determines  the  politics  of  the  nation. 
He  is  not  a  diplomat,  but  he  is  the  leader  in  building  up 
the  moral  sentiment  which  determines  what  the  diplo- 
mat will  do.  He  may  never  set  foot  on  foreign  shore, 
but  he  leads  the  great  movement  of  foreign  missions 
which  is  creating  a  new  Orient.  After  we  have  said  all 
that  can  be  said  for  other  callings,  we  must  acknowl- 
edge that  the  one  which  has  done  most  for  the  world  is 
the  one  that  is  moved  by  moral  purposes. 

"The  influence  of  kings  and  warriors  and  statesmen 
is  not  to  be  compared  with  the  influence  of  the  Church 
led  by  her  ministers.  When  Jesus  Christ  came  to  earth 
to  build  up  the  Kingdom  of  God  he  chose  the  ministry 
as  the  profession  through  which  he  could  best  accom- 
plish his  work.  He  could  have  been  a  statesman  and 
made  laws  for  the  upholding  of  justice;  he  could  have 
been  a  philanthropist  and  fed  the  hungry  and  clothed 
the  naked ;  he  could  have  been  a  warrior  and  led  armies 
in  glorious  triumph  over  the  forces  of  evil;  but  he  chose 
the  ministry  because  through  it  his  influence  would  go 
down  to  the  fountains  of  national  life  and  produce  up- 
lifting statesmen  and  warriors  and  philanthropists  in 
countless  numbers.  The  influence  of  kings,  statesmen 
and  warriors  is  insignificant  compared  with  his.  He 
packed  himself  into  a  few  men  and  sent  them  out  to 
pass  that  indwelling  power  on  to  others;  promising  to 
build  up  a  new  civilization  through  them. 

"The  students  of  the  rise  of  civilization  credit  its  up- 
ward progress  to  these  men.  Practically  all  the  great 
uplifting  movements  that  have  marked  the  progress  of 
Christian  civilization  have  had  their  source  in  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Christian  pulpit.  The  prophets  of  the  Old 
Dispensation  and  the  Apostles  and  Preachers  of  the  New 
Dispensation  were  the  regenerators  of  the  earth.  It 
was  not  warriors  and  statesmen,  but  missionaries  that 


36  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

turned  pagan  lands,  lifting  whole  peoples  from  beast- 
hood  to  manhood.  It  was  not  statesmen  nor  rulers, 
hut  preachers,  that  overthrew  slavery,  by  producing 
among  the  people  a  sentiment  which  made  its  existence 
impossible.  Augustine  the  Preacher  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  England's  civilization.  William  Morrison  op- 
ened China  to  civilization.  William  Carey  did  the  same 
for  India,  and  David  Livingstone  for  Africa.  Standing 
before  the  Cathedral  of  Wittenberg,  Jean  Paul  uncov- 
ered his  head  and  said:  "The  story  of  the  German  lan- 
guage is  the  story  of  Martin  Luther's  pulpit." 

"Daniel  Webster,  Anthony  Froude,  Rufus  Choate, 
and  many  others  like  them  have  affirmed  that  represen- 
tative government  came  from  Calvin's  pulpit  in  Geneva. 
Daniel  Webster  asked:  'Where  can  you  find  one  spot 
in  the  earth  where  a  new  social  order  has  been  created 
and  the  man  who  has  digged  the  foundation  was  not  a 
minister?'  Where  have  the  life  giving  waters  of  civiliza- 
tion sprang  up  save  in  the  track  of  the  Christian  minis- 
try? Ruskin  said:  'The  Puritan  pulpits  were  the  springs 
of  American  liberty.'  The  Earl  of  Shaftesbury  said  that 
Charles  Spurgeon  by  the  spiritual  work  he  did  in  London 
had  done  more  for  social  reform  and  progress  than  any 
statesman  of  his  era."* 


Promoting  Organized  Christianity.  Home  Mis- 
sions is  the  agency  for  the  extension  of  organized  Chris- 
tianity. Along  with  the  growth  of  the  nation  has  gone 
the  growth  of  the  Church.  The  preacher  and  the 
teacher  have  followed  the  pathfinder  and  the  home- 
steader. As  the  railroads  pushed  their  way  across  the 
plains  and  over  the  mountains,  the  Church  sent  out  its 
Home  Missionaries  to  gather  the  people  into  churches 
for  instruction  and  worship  that  they  might  not  forget 
God  in  their  new  environment.  In  these  little  groups 


*Dr.  J.  D.  Rankin,  "The  Choice  of  a  Profession." 


LAYING  FOUNDATIONS  37 

of  Christians  of  every  denomination  were  men  of  faith 
and  prayer,  women  of  patience  and  trust.  The  mis- 
sionaries came  and  went,  but  their  sacrifice  was  a  never 
failing  spring.  They  prayed  and  gave,  they  toiled  and 
suffered  that  Christ's  cause  might  be  kept  alive,  and 
faith  in  God  as  He  has  been  revealed  to  men  might  not 
perish  from  the  land  in  which  we  live. 

Many  of  the  churches  thus  organized  may  never  have 
become  self-supporting.  They  had  to  be  aided  by  mis- 
sion funds,  but  they  were  instrumental  in  holding  back 
the  forces  of  evil  that  would  have  engulfed  these  new 
communities  in  their  beginning.  To  this  service  Presi- 
dent Roosevelt  pays  tribute: 

"It  was  such  missionary  work  that  prevented  the  pio- 
neers from  sinking  perilously  near  the  level  of  savagery 
against  which  they  contended.  Without  this  the  con- 
quest of  this  continent  would  have  had  little  but  the 
animal  side.  Because  of  it,  deep  beneath  and  through 
the  national  character  there  runs  that  power  of  fierce 
adherence  to  a  lofty  ideal  upon  which  the  safety  of  the 
nation  will  ultimately  depend." 

Every  denomination  in  this  country  owes  its  present 
standing  to  its  Home  Mission  operations.  From  four- 
fifths  to  nine-tenths  of  all  the  Protestant  churches  in 
North  America  had  their  origin  in  Home  Missions. 
Their  buildings  were  erected  wholly  or  in  part  by  Home 
Mission  money.  Of  the  first  one  hundred  and  nineteen 
colleges  in  this  country  one  hundred  and  four  were  Chris- 
tian colleges.  In  1890,  of  the  four  hundred  and  fifteen 
colleges  in  the  United  States,  three  hundred  and  sixteen 
belonged  to  Christian  denominations.  There  is  not  a 
college  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  over  sixty  years  old 
that  cannot  be  traced  to  some  Home  Missionary.  When 


462445 


38  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

we  find  that  thirty-eight  per  cent  of  the  names  mentioned 
in  the  biographical  dictionaries  are  the  sons  or  grand- 
sons of  Christian  ministers,  we  realize  what  these  Home 
Missionaries  and  the  institutions  they  founded  have  done 
for  the  laws,  the  literature  and  the  liberties  of  the  Re- 
public. 

Increasing  Demands.  The  work  of  the  Church  is 
being  enlarged  year  by  year.  Our  educational  institu- 
tions are  making  heavier  demands  upon  the  resources 
of  the  denomination.  The  colleges  and  seminaries  are 
seeking  larger  endowments  and  better  equipment  to 
meet  the  requirements  of  their  work.  For  our  aged  and 
disabled  ministers  and  for  the  orphans  of  the  Church  a 
more  adequate  provision  must  be  made.  The  work  in 
the  foreign  field  is  steadily  enlarging  and  is  calling  for 
more  workers  and  for  greater  financial  support. 

The  needs  of  the  exceptional  and  dependent  popula- 
tions at  home  must  be  met.  If  the  Church  is  to  continue 
its  effort  among  the  Indians  and  is  to  enlarge  its  work 
among  the  millions  of  immigrants  that  are  pouring  in 
upon  us  like  a  flood ;  among  the  mountain  people  where 
the  need  is  so  urgent  and  the  work  so  blessed;  if  the  con- 
gested masses  in  the  cities  are  to  be  reached;  if  the  Negro 
race  is  to  have  a  gospel  of  purity  and  right-living 
preached  unto  it;  if  the  58,000,000  people  out  of  the 
Church  and  away  from  Christ  in  our  own  land  are  to  be 
won,  and  America  is  to  become  a  "nation  whose  God  is 
the  Lord,"  there  will  be  need  for  many  more  workers, 
and  still  more  money  will  be  required  to  sustain  them. 
As  the  missionary  enterprises  of  the  Church  are  enlarged 
the  resources  of  the  Church  must  correspondingly  be 
increased. 


LAYING  FOUNDATIONS  39 

Increasing  Ability.  There  are  two  ways  for  the 
Church  to  meet  this  growing  need. 

(a)  The  Development  of  Existing  Congregations.  The 
present  membership  can  give  more.  A  greater  sense  of 
stewardship  is  one  of  the  mightiest  calls  of  Christ  to 
men  today.  The  members  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
more  and  more  are  recognizing  this  responsibility  as  the 
claim  of  Christ  and  his  work  is  presented  to  them.  The 
growth  of  our  benevolent  contributions  through  the 
efforts  of  the  Assembly's  Stewardship  Committee  has 
been  one  of  the  outstanding  developments  of  the  Church. 
The  whole  work  of  the  Church  has  been  put  forward  as 
a  result  of  these  campaigns.  Our  Church  stands  near 
the  head  of  all  the  great  Protestant  denominations  of 
this  country  in  per  capita  gifts.  Yet  there  are  a  vast 
number  of  churches,  containing  a  large  proportion  of 
our  membership  that  have  not  been  reached  by  the 
stewardship  appeal  and  have  no  share  in  the  progressive 
program  of  our  Church.  The  campaign  must  go  on 
until  every  church  is  enlisted  in  the  world-wide  work  of 
the  Kingdom  and  every  member  giving  to  every  cause. 
This  is  necessary  for  the  safety  of  the  individual,  for  the 
prosperity  of  the  Church,  and  the  cause  of  Christ. 

(6)  The  Organization  of  New  Congregations.  To  en- 
large the  Church  is  to  enlarge  its  resources.  There  are 
millions  of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  people  outside  the 
Church,  in  places  where  we  have  no  organization.  If 
the  Church  can  win  men  who  have  money  and  who  are 
making  money  they  will  hereafter  give  of  their  wealth 
to  help  others.  The  increasing  ability  of  the  Church 
through  its  Home  Mission  work  is  forcibly  illustrated 
in  the  contributions  of  the  Home  Mission  States.  The 
Home  Mission  Synods  of  Appalachia,  Florida,  Louisiana, 


40  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

Arkansas,  Oklahoma  and  Texas,  whose  churches  almost 
without  exception  have  been  organized  and  sustained 
by  Home  Mission  agencies,  contribute  to  the  single 
cause  of  Foreign  Missions  more  than  the  entire  Church 
spends  through  the  Assembly's  Home  Mission  Commit- 
tee upon  the  work  of  Evangelism,  Church  Erection  and 
Sustentation  in  those  Synods.  Every  new  church  or- 
ganized in  a  growing  community  adds  to  the  ability  of 
the  denomination  to  sustain  its  ever-enlarging  work. 

The  advance  of  God's  Kingdom  in  every  field  has  al- 
ways been  by  the  way  of  the  little  struggling  Home  Mis- 
sion churches,  which  in  time  become  strong,  constitu- 
ting a  permanent  endowment  which  yields  enormous 
interest.  The  great  majority  of  the  churches  of  our  As- 
sembly, those  which  give  most  loyally  to  all  mission 
causes,  were  begun  as  Home  Mission  enterprises.  They 
represent  the  strength  of  the  denomination,  and  make 
possible  the  support  of  the  great  denominational  enter- 
prises that  are  lighting  up  the  dark  places  in  our  own 
and  are  carrying  the  message  of  light  and  life  to  the 
millions  dwelling  in  heathen  lands. 

Opportunities  for  Growth.  The  openings  for  de- 
nominational expansion  have  not  all  been  occupied. 
There  remaineth  yet  very  much  land  to  be  possessed. 

(a)  In  the  great  Southwest,  a  region  with  more  than 
twice  the  area  of  the  original  thirteen  States,  there  are 
vast  stretches  of  territory,  rapidly  filling  up  with  set- 
tlers, where  our  Church  has  not  gone.  Texas  has  a  ter- 
ritory larger  than  Germany  or  France,  and  some  of  her 
Presbyteries  are.  greater  in  area  than  some  of  the  east- 
ern Synods.  Oklahoma  is  larger  by  8,000  square  miles 
than  all  of  New  England.  Arkansas  and  Louisiana  are 
old  States,  but  are  just  beginning  their  real  development. 


LAYING  FOUNDATIONS 


41 


If  these  States  are  ever  as  densely  populated  as  some  of 
the  eastern  States  they  will  contain  more  than  125,000,- 
000  people,  so  great  is  the  extent  and  the  possibilities  of 
this  Southwestern  Empire. 

In  the  early  days  our  fathers  built  their  houses,  and 
then  the  church  close  by.  Today  the  church  comes  last 
if  it  comes  at  all.  The  gospel  privileges  in  this  great 
region  are  totally  inadequate  for  the  multitudes  who 
need  them  today  as  never  before.  The  American  Sur- 
vey reports  that  5,000  churches  are  needed  west  of  the 
Mississippi  River  to  care  for  communities  now  unevan- 
gelized.  In  Oklahoma,  which  is  typical  of  the  whole 
Southwest,  only  eighteen  out  of  every  one  hundred  per- 
sons are  in  the  Christian  Church.  In  Arkansas  it  is 
possible  to  have  a  church  of  a  million  members,  and  not 
take  one  from  an  existing  organization.  In  this  state 
there  are  twenty-six  counties  in  which  the  Southern  Pres- 
byterian Church  has  not  a  Sunday-school  or  a  mission. 
In  Louisiana,  with  its  vast  resources  and  multitudes  of 
people  there  are  eight  parishes  without  a  single  Protest- 


"THE  NEW  AND  THE  OLD* 


42  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

ant  church  of  any  denomination.  In  the  matter  of 
Christianizing  this  Empire  of  the  Southwest,  the  Church 
has  only  made  a  beginning.  We  are  like  men  on  a  moun- 
tain trail.  As  yet  we  have  only  climbed  the  foothills, 
the  supreme  ranges  are  just  coming  into  sight.  If  the 
boundless  wealth  of  this  great  region  is  acquired  by  men 
who  for  neglect  are  not  Christians,  it  will  become  a 
menace  instead  of  a  help  to  the  forces  of  righteousness 
in  the  years  to  come. 

(b)  The  Southeast  is  just  entering  upon  the  era  of  the 
largest  development.  This  is  evidenced  by  the  rapid 
growth  in  population  of  all  the  southern  cities.  Along 
the  line  of  one  railroad  over  four  hundred  new  industries 
were  opened  in  a  single  year,  bringing  thousands  of  peo- 
ple into  those  communities,  the  forerunners  of  the  thous- 
ands yet  to  come.  With  the  completion  of  the  Muscle 
Shoals  project  at  Florence,  Alabama,  and  the  production 
of  cheap  fertilizers  for  the  farmers  and  cheap  power  for 
the  manufacturers,  the  South  will  be  started  in  the  way 
to  unmeasured  growth  and  prosperity. 

In  Georgia  600,000  white  people  are  out  of  the  Church. 
There  are  fifty-four  counties  in  the  state  in  which  the 
Southern  Presbyterian  Church  has  no  organized  work. 
The  situation  in  Georgia  is  typical  of  all  the  southeast- 
ern states.  The  mining  and  manufacturing  sections  of 
Alabama,  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  Virginia  and  West  Vir- 
ginia comprise  a  region  of  almost  limitless  material  re- 
sources. The  foundations  of  great  industries  are  being 
laid.  This  region  perhaps  offers  more  varied  and  more 
promising  opportunities  to  extend  the  borders  of  the 
Church  and  win  a  great  people  for  service  in  the  King- 
dom of  God  than  any  other  section  of  the  country.  In 
many  places  the  missionary  organizations  have  not  been 


LAYING  FOUNDATIONS  43 

able  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  growing  and  congested 
populations.  The  forces  of  evil  are  organized  and  multi- 
plied in  number,  while  scores  of  communities  are  with- 
out the  ministration  of  the  gospel  by  any  church. 

(c)  In  many  rural  communities  there  are  opportuni- 
ties for  growth.  The  Presbyterian  Church  has  neglect- 
ed the  country  communities  to  its  own  disadvantage. 
In  losing  the  country  we  have  largely  lost  the  city.  It 
is  true  that  in  many  rural  places  the  church  is  difficult 
to  maintain.  Many  of  them  are  unable  without  assist- 
ance to  support  a  minister.  These  churches  must  not 
be  abandoned,  but  must  be  strengthened  and  encour- 
aged. They  make  large  contributions  to  the  cause  of 
Christ.  Their  gifts  in  money  may  not  be  large,  but  they 
contribute  that  which  is  far  more  valuable  than  money. 
They  send  their  sons  and  daughters  by  the  hundreds 
to  be  workers  and  supporters  of  city  churches.  There 
are  country  congregations  that  for  years  have  been  send- 
ing elders,  deacons  and  Sunday-school  teachers  to  build 
up  the  churches  in  the  city.  Our  city  churches  could 
not  long  survive  if  it  were  not  for  the  constant  accessions 
of  strength  from  the  country. 

"Whatever  there  is  today  of  virtue,  righteousness, 
human  brotherhood  and  the  fear  and  love  of  God  in 
American  life  is  largely  the  fruit  of  the  labors  of  country 
preachers  and  country  churches." 

There  are  country  groups  ministered  to  by  a  Home 
Mission  pastor  that  have  furnished  more  ministers  and 
missionaries  than  three  or  four  self-supporting  churches 
in  a  city  with  their  hundreds  of  members.  One  Home 
Mission  field  supported  by  the  Assembly's  Committee 
has  in  the  past  eight  years  furnished  four  mountain 


44  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

missionaries,  two  foreign  volunteers,  and  five  minis- 
terial candidates.  The  little  church  at  Soddy,  Tennes- 
see, is  a  conspicuous  example  of  the  value  of  the  coun- 
try church  as  a  ministerial  recruiting  ground.  This 
church  never  had  more  than  seventy-five  members,  and 
for  years  received  help  from  Home  Mission  funds.  Since 
its  organization  in  1829  it  has  sent  seventeen  men  into 
the  ministry  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  There  are 
Presbyteries  that  have  not  made  so  large  a  contribution. 

The  cause  of  the  country  church  is  too  urgent  and 
means  too  much  to  the  welfare  of  the  nation  and  of  the 
Kingdom  to  allow  it  to  be  neglected.  It  is  true  that 
many  of  the  old  families  which  were  the  strength  of  the 
church  and  the  community  are  moving  away,  but  new 
families  are  coming  in  to  take  their  places.  There  is  no 
greater  or  more  important  service  that  Home  Missions 
can  render  the  cause  of  Christ  than  that  of  sustaining 
and  keeping  alive  the  country  church,  that  its  rich  red 
blood  may  be  poured  into  the  currents  of  the  Church's 
life. 

Two  things  are  needed  if  the  Church  is  to  enlarge  its 
borders  and  increase  its  resources. 

1.  Greater  Evangelistic  Effort.  The  spirit  and  pur- 
pose of  Evangelism  lies  at  the  base  of  all  Christian  effort. 
Dr.  Lyman  Beecher  was  once  asked,  "What  do  you  count 
the  greatest  thing  a  human  being  can  be  or  do?"  He  re- 
plied, "The  greatest  thing  one  human  being  can  do  is  to 
bring  another  human  being  to  Jesus  Christ  as  Saviour." 
To  win  another  to  Christ  is  the  first  duty  and  the  highest 
privilege  of  every  Christian.  "He  first  findeth  his  own 
brother  Simon  .  .  .  and  he  brought  him  to  Jesus."  It 
is  the  initial  step  in  the  conquest  of  the  world  for  Christ. 
Conversion  and  then  culture  is  the  order  of  the  King- 


LAYING  FOUNDATIONS  45 

dom.  Men  must  be  led  to  accept  the  invitation,  "Come," 
before  they  can  heed  the  command,  "Go."  It  is  only 
through  earnest  evangelistic  effort  that  the  Church  can 
make  any  real  progress  in  winning  the  great  multitudes 
of  lost  and  indifferent  in  every  community. 

The  evangelistic  situation  that  confronts  the  churches 
in  America  has  been  one  demanding  serious  and  prayer- 
ful consideration.  During  the  nineteenth  century  the 
Church  made  great  progress  in  winning  souls  to  Christ. 
In  1800  only  seven  persons  out  of  every  one  hundred 
were  members  of  the  Church.  In  1850,  the  number  had 
increased  to  fifteen  out  of  every  one  hundred.  In  1900, 
there  were  twenty-four  church  members  in  every  one 
hundred.  Since  that  date  the  growth  of  the  Church  has 
not  kept  pace  with  the  increase  in  population.  The 
nation  has  been  growing  more  rapidly  than  the  Church. 
For  several  years  the  Church  in  America  has  been  re- 
porting a  decreasing  number  received  on  profession  of 
faith  each  year,  and  the  lowest  level  for  thirty-five  years 
was  reached  in  1919.  But  there  is  reason  for  encourage- 
ment in  the  fact  that  the  tide  has  turned.  The  Evan- 
gelistic Commission  of  the  Federal  Council  reports  more 
additions  to  the  Protestant  churches  in  this  country  in 
1921  than  were  ever  received  in  the  same  length  of  time. 
In  1921  the  Southern  Presbyterian  Church  showed  the 
same  improvement.  We  were  able  to  report  to  the. 
Assembly  24,369  additions  upon  profession,  the  largest 
number  ever  received  in  any  one  year  in  our  history. 

The  Assembly  in  1921  adopted  the  following  Evange- 
listic Program  and  recommended  it  to  the  churches  as 
the  goal  of  their  evangelistic  efforts: 

(a)  Fifteen  per  cent  of  membership  added  upon  pro- 
fession of  faith; 


46  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

(b)  Twenty-five   per   cent   increased    attendance   on 
church  services; 

(c)  A  Sunday-school  enrollment  at  least  equal  to  the 
church  membership; 

(d)  At  least  one  life  enlisted  for  definite  religious  work 
for  each  congregation; 

(e)  A  family  altar  in  every  home; 

(/)  The  establishment  of  mission  Sunday-schools  and 
churches  wherever  possible. 

The  Executive  Committee  of  Home  Missions  has  been 
entrusted  with  the  responsibility  for  the  promotion  of 
the  spirit  and  message  of  Evangelism  throughout  the 
Church.  In  the  Evangelistic  Department  the  Committee 
employs  a  corps  of  able  evangelists — General,  Synodical, 
Presby terial ;  and  evangelists  for  special  classes — Mexi- 
cans, Indians,  Negroes,  Mountain  people,  and  prisoners. 
These  workers  are  engaged  in  holding  evangelistic  meet- 
ings during  the  year.  Every  missionary  and  Home 
Mission  pastor  aided  by  the  committee  is  commissioned 
as  an  evangelist.  Through  the  efforts  of  the  workers 
aided  by  the  Assembly's  Committee  8,954  were  added 
(Annual  Report  1921)  to  the  Church  upon  profession 
of  their  faith  in  Christ. 

The  Local  Church  the  Unit  of  Power.  It  is  in  the 
local  church  that  the  effort  must  be  made  and  the  re- 
sults obtained.  A  special  evangelistic  service  is  helpful, 
and  every  church  should  make  this  special  effort,  but  it 
should  only  be  the  beginning  of  a  soul-winning  campaign. 
No  congregation  can  meet  its  evangelistic  responsibility 
by  having  one  special  meeting  during  the  year,  and  then 
resting  twelve  months  before  another  effort  is  made. 
Someone  has  said,  "God  rarely  goes  over  a  cold  pastor 
to  reach  a  cold  session;  God  rarely  goes  over  a  cold  ses- 
sion to  reach  a  cold  congregation;  God  never  goes  over 


LAYING  FOUNDATIONS  47 

a  cold  congregation  to  reach  a  cold  community."  The 
pastor  and  session  are  the  ordained  leaders  and  they  will 
awaken  the  congregation  only  as  they  themselves  are 
stirred  by  their  responsibility.  When  pastors  accept 
the  responsibility  of  leadership,  when  officers  accept 
their  task  as  a  sacred  trust,  God  has  an  agency  through 
which  to  work. 

A  Congregational  Program.  The  records  show 
that  the  churches  that  begin  the  year  with  a  definite 
program  of  work  and  a  definite  objective  are  the  churches 
that  close  the  year  with  the  most  encouraging  results. 
While  it  is  a  continuous  effort  to  be  sustained  by  earnest 
prayer  and  supplication,  a  dead  level  in  the  church's 
program  can  be  avoided  by  the  stimulus  of  special  days 
and  special  occasions. 

The  Communion  Season  can  be  made  a  time  of  in- 
gathering. While  it  is  true  that  in  many  churches  souls 
should  be  converted  every  Sabbath,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  quarterly  communion  is  thought  of  as  the  time  when 
conversions  take  place. 

Decision  Day  in  the  Sunday-school  is  an  unusual  op-. 
portunity  for  pastors,  teachers  and  parents  to  press  the 
claims  of  Christ  upon  the  children  and  youth  in  the 
Sunday-school  and  in  the  home.  In  many  churches 
Decision  Day  is  one  of  the  great  occasions  of  the  church 
year. 

Special  Evangelistic  Service.  Every  church  should 
have  a  special  series  of  meetings  for  one  or  two  weeks 
during  the  year.  Heart  stirring  messages  day  after  day 
are  greatly  blessed  in  reaching  the  lost. 

The  Easter  Season  can  be  made  a  time  of  great  in- 
gathering. In  many  churches  this  is  made  the  climax 
of  the  church  year.  It  is  a  season  when  hearts  are 


48  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

greatly  impressed,  and  many  will  accept  Christ  as  Sa- 
viour. 

Membership  Day.  This  is  just  what  the  name  indi- 
cates— a  time  for  gathering  in  new  members.  Everyone 
is  asked  to  assist  in  bringing  into  church  fellowship  all 
for  whom  that  church  is  responsible.  In  a  certain  city 
there  was  held  what  was  called  "Church  Letter  Day," 
when  a  general  search  was  made  for  certificates  of  mem- 
bership and  several  thousand  were  found.  In  every  city 
there  are  many  who  are  members  of  churches  elsewhere 
who  should  be  brought  into  fellowship  with  the  church 
where  they  live. 

The  Assembly's  evangelistic  goal  will  be  reached  not 
by  any  one  evangelistic  campaign,  but  by  a  steady  and 
constant  emphasis  in  pastoral  and  personal  evangelism 
in  all  our  churches.  No  greater  distinction  can  be  given 
any  Church  or  denomination  than  that  it  is  a  soul-sav- 
ing Church. 

2.  A  Campaign  of  Church  Building.  The  Church 
that  builds  most  grows  most.  Church  Erection  is  only 
another  way  of  saying  Church  Expansion.  A  church 
cannot  hope  to  prosper  or  meet  its  full  responsibility  to 
the  community  in  which  it  is  located,  without  a  house  of 
worship.  Many  newly  organized  churches  are  unable 
to  build  without  assistance  either  by  a  donation  or  loan 
from  a  building  fund.  All  great  denominations  recog- 
nize this  help  as  a  fundamental  and  necessary  part  of 
their  Home  Mission  work.  A  contribution  for  a  new 
church  building  is  not  a  gift  but  an  investment  in  the  ex- 
tension of  the  Kingdom.  Probably  no  denomination 
has  been  slower  to  realize  the  importance  of  making 
these  investments  than  our  own. 

The  total  Building  Fund  of  the  Assembly's  Commit- 


LAYING  FOUNDATIONS  49 

tee  is  about  $100,000.  Other  denominations  doing  mission 
work  in  this  country  have  funds  from  $400,000  to  $5,- 
000,000.  Because  of  this  inadequate  provision  for 
Church  Erection  much  of  the  fruit  of  the  labors  of  our 
splendid  ministers  and  Home  Missionaries  has  been  lost. 
The  tragedy  of  our  Home  Mission  work  has  been  the 
number  of  newly  organized  churches  in  places  of  prom- 
ise that  have  been  declined  assistance,  when  a  small 
gift  or  a  loan  at  a  critical  time  from  the  General  Assem- 
bly would  have  put  them  in  the  way  of  growth  and 
progress.  The  records  show  that  the  Presbyteries  in 
which  the  largest  number  of  churches  have  been  helped 
from  the  meager  funds  of  the  Committee  have  had  the 
greatest  growth.  If  the  Assembly's  Committee  had  been 
given  the  means  with  which  to  accept  a  fourth  of  the 
promising  opportunities  to  plant  new  churches  in  grow- 
ing centers  that  it  was  compelled  to  decline  during  the 
past  twenty-five  years,  the  Southern  Presbyterian 
Church  could  have  a  membership  'of  500,000  which,  at 
the  present  rate  of  giving,  would  increase  our  benevolent 
contributions  $1,489,000  per  year.  The  loss  to  the 
Church  is  seen,  when  it  is  considered  the  number  of 
additional  missionaries  this  increased  amount  would 
support.  Church  Extension  is  fundamental  to  the 
Church's  world-wide  missionary  program.  Nowhere 
has  there  been  a  sadder  denominational  neglect  or  a 
greater  denominational  loss. 

Great  Loan  Fund  Needed.  This  is  the  time  of  the 
greatest  growth  in  our  Church's  history.  There  seems 
to  be  a  general  revival  of  church  building  throughout 
the  Assembly.  Congregations  are  outgrowing  their 
places  of  worship.  Buildings  that  answered  the  purpose 
of  a  former  day  are  largely  inadequate  for  the  demands 


50  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

of  the  present.  Sunday-schools  are  needing  new  and 
becter  equipment  for  their  work.  A  survey  of  the  Pres- 
byteries show  a  present  need  of  three  hundred  and  thirty- 
three  new  church  buildings  and  two  hundred  and  ninety- 
nine  manses  and  missionary  homes,  besides  a  number 
of  mission  school  buildings  and  dormitories.  The  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  because  of  the  opportunities  that  have 
been  lost  to  the  Church  and  the  necessity  for  entering 
many  new  and  inviting  fields,  urged  the  immediate  im- 
portance of  a  $500,000  Building  Fund,  and  placed  this 
amount  in  the  Assembly's  Equipment  Campaign. 

Such  a  fund  would  enable  the  Committee  to  help  hun- 
dreds of  churches.  Many  of  them  would  immediately 
become  self-supporting  and  contribute  liberally  to  our 
denominational  enterprises.  Every  dollar  provided  by 
the  Assembly's  Committee  would  mean  four  dollars 
provided  by  the  congregation  assisted.  A  $500,000  fund 
for  Church  Building  would  mean  the  investment  of  at 
least  two  and  one-half  million  dollars  in  new  church 
equipment.  The  children  of  this  world  are  wise  in  their 
generation.  They  are  looking  ahead;  they  are  doubling 
their  plants,  building  for  the  future  as  well  as  for  the 
present.  Shall  the  children  of  light  be  less  wise  in  their 
day? 

Fitting  Memorial.  Thirty  years  ago  Mr.  W.  A. 
Moore,  an  elder  in  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  At- 
lanta, Georgia,  deeply  interested  in  the  extension  of  the 
cause  of  Christ  in  the  world,  left  $5,000  to  the  Executive 
Committee  of  Home  Missions,  to  aid  mission  churches 
secure  homes  of  worship.  The  Moore  Fund  has  as- 
sisted one  hundred  and  four  churches  in  building.  Is 
there  another  $5,000  that  has  accomplished  as  much  in 
the  upbuilding  of  the  Southern  Presbyterian  Church, 


LAYING  FOUNDATIONS  51 

and  the  extension  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  the  world? 
These  little  churches,  resonant  with  Christian  praise 
every  Sabbath  are  better  than  all  the  cold  marble  ever 
chiseled  or  bronze  moulded  to  perpetuate  the  memory 
of  a  child  of  God. 

The  Executive  Committee  of  Home  Missions  will  hold 
sums  of  $500.00  or  more,  contributed  by  church,  society, 
family  or  individual,  as  Memorial  Funds,  bearing  the 
name  of  the  donor,  or  of  any  other  whose  memory  it  is 
desired  to  honor  or  perpetuate.  A  memorial  fund  is 
loaned  at  low  interest  to  a  worthy  church,  and  when  re- 
paid is  loaned  to  another,  and  thus  goes  on  reproducing 
and  multiplying  itself  through  the  years.  Persons  de- 
siring to  leave  their  principal  to  Home  Missions,  but 
who  need  the  income  therefrom  during  their  lifetime, 
can  render  a  very  real  service  to  the  cause  of  Church 
Erection  by  investing  the  amount  in  an  Annuity  Bond,  on 
which  the  Home  Mission  Committee  pays  interest  dur- 
ing the  life  of  the  investor,  the  money  becoming  a  part 
of  the  Assembly's  Church  Erection  Fund  at  his  death. 

"Next  to  the  longing  for  immortality,  which  God 
Himself  has  planted  in  every  human  breast,  is  the  desire 
to  perpetuate  our  own  name  or  the  name  of  those  we 
love  and  honor.  But  the  most  sanguine  builder  of  monu- 
ments has  never  produced  a  memorial  which  would 
either  withstand  the  ravages  of  time  or  increase  in  beauty 
and  strength  as  the  years  go  by. 

"It  is  the  distinction  and  glory  of  a  memorial  loan  fund, 
that  it  is  strong  where  other  monuments  are  weak. 
Here  is  something  of  a  material  nature  that  has  in  it 
the  quality  of  life.  It  is  a  perpetual  source  of  benedic- 
tion, going  forth  on  errands  of  mercy  and  helpfulness 
to  return  with  increased  power  for  usefulness. 

"Bishop  H.  C.  Morrison  describes  it  as  an  'everlasting 


52  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

benediction;  an  immortal  good  Samaritan,  with  wine 
and  oil  and  bandages  for  the  bleeding  and  helpless 
churches  of  the  land.'  Going  to  the  West,  it  fortifies 
a  point;  returning  to  the  East  it  repairs  a  breach  in  the 
wall.  It  lives  for  all  times  and  lives  for  God.  It  will 
work  on  and  on  after  you  have  ceased  to  work,  and  will 
come  to  you  with  exceeding  increase  in  eternity." 

How  can  men  believe  without  a  preacher?  And  how 
can  a  preacher  preach  effectively  without  a  house  in 
which  the  hearers  may  gather  to  hear?  A  church  build- 
ing is  a  logical  and  necessary  part  of  preaching  the  gos- 
pel. It  is  a  vital  means  in  establishing  the  Kingdom  of 
God  in  the  world. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  How    does   stewardship    apply    to    material    resources?    To 

spiritual? 

2.  Prove  that  Home  Mission  service  is  (a)  world  service;  (b) 

patriotic  service;  (c)  denominational  service;  (d)  educa- 
tional service. 

3.  What  are  some  of  the  increasing  demands  upon  the  resources 

of  the  Church? 

4.  What  cause  is  fundamental  to  the  Church's  progress? 

5.  In  what  two  ways  can  the  Church  meet  the  growing  need  for 

workers  and  money? 

6.  Is    the    South    adequately    churched?    Prove    your    answer 

four  times. 

7.  In  what  way  is  the  country  church  important? 

8.  What  two  things  are  essential  if  the  Church  is  to  go  forward? 

9.  What  is  the  Assembly's  evangelistic  goal?     Has  your  church 

reached  it? 

10.  What  is  the  value  of  special  days  and  seasons  in  the  work  of 

the  Church? 

11.  Why  is  an  adequate  Church  Building  Fund  a  denominational 

necessity? 

12.  In  what  different  ways  is  a  "Memorial  Fund"  a  blessing? 


CHAPTER  III. 
PAYING  A  DEBT 
SECTION  I. — INDIANS 


The  Indian  of  the  old  trail  was  a  religious  being. 
The  very  perils  and  hardships  of  the  chase  and  war- 
path created  in  him  a  longing  for  some  relationship 
with  the  unseen  world  of  mystery  round  about  him. 

But  the  old  Indian  has  passed  on,  leaving  behind 
chiefly  such  vestiges  of  the  old  regime  as  war  paint  and 
feathers,  bow  and  arrow,  blanket  and  moccasin. 

The  Indian  of  today  is  just  coming  into  citizenship. 
He  meets  the  demands  of  this  new  transition  period. 
He  has  entered  upon  the  highway  of  knowledge  and 
cannot  turn  back  to  the  old  trails. 

Less  than  one-third  of  the  Indian  population  is  re- 
lated to  the  various  Christian  communions;  approxi- 
mately 46,000  are  neglected  by  Christian  agencies  and 
unreached  by  Roman  Catholic  or  Protestant  mission- 
aries. 

Nine  thousand  Indian  youths  heard  their  country's 
call  in  the  late  war  and  left  their  tribal  clans  to  fight 
for  liberty.  Six  thousand  were  volunteers. 

That  the  Christian  churches  of  this  land  owe  a  debt 
to  the  Indian,  the  eternal  debt  of  love  forever  unpaid, 
which  proximity  and  the  claims  of  neighborliness 
bring,  no  one  will  question.  The  long-deferred  pay- 
ment of  this  debt  calls  for  immediate  settlement  before 
the  night  comes  on  and  the  people  are  left  in  their  dark- 
ness. 

— American  Survey. 


III. 

PA  YING  A  DEBT 
I.  THE  INDIAN 

Of  all  the  peoples  that  go  to  make  up  our  great  coun- 
try there  is  none  that  has  a  larger  claim  upon  the 
Church's  interest  and  effort  than  the  North  American 
Indian.  As  old  as  the  European  settlement  on  these 
shores,  so  old  is  our  debt  to  this  race.  The  original 
owners  of  the  continent,  they  were  here  to  welcome  our 
forefathers  who  sought  in  this  new  world  a  refuge  from 
the  tyranny  of  the  old,  but  who  in  turn,  with  a  few 
noble  exceptions,  drove  the  owners  from  their  ancestral 
lands  in  utter  disregard  of  moral  right  or  legal  justice. 
Someone  has  said,  "To  the  Indian  we  owe  a  debt  of 
financial  obligation  that  money  can  never  pay;  a  debt 
of  legal  obligation  that  treaty  after  treaty  has  but  in- 
creased; a  debt  of  moral  obligation  increasing  year  by 
year  as  the  Indian  is  increasingly  degraded  by  vices 
learned  from  his  white  neighbors." 

Not  a  Vanishing  Race.  The  Indian  has  furnished 
more  than  one  essayist  and  public  speaker  with  material 
on  "The  Vanishing  Race  of  Redmen."  But  he  has  not 
vanished!  While  it  is  true  that  some  tribes  have  be- 
come extinct  and  some  are  decreasing,  yet  the  loss  has 
been  more  than  balanced  by  the  gain  in  others.  The 
last  census  placed  the  number  in  the  continental  United 
States  at  336,000.  They  are  divided  into  not  less  than 
two  hundred  and  seventy-five  tribal  bands  and  clans, 
all  speaking  different  languages  and  dialects,  scattered 


56  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

on  one  hundred  and  forty-seven  reservations  and  differ- 
ent communities,  in  practically  every  state  in  the  Union. 
The  largest  number  of  Indians  in  any' state  is  in  Okla- 
homa, where  there  are  120,000.  The  others  are  largely 
confined  on  great  reservations  in  Arizona,  California, 
New  Mexico  and  other  western  states,  or  scattered  in 
smaller  numbers  on  small  reservations  throughout  the 
East. 

Presbyterian  Beginnings.  The  Presbyterian  Church 
from  the  very  first  has  shown  an  interest  in  the  Indian's 
material  and  spiritual  welfare,  and  has  had  a  part  with 
the  other  great  denominations  in  the  evangelization  of 
the  Indian  people.  At  the  present  time  there  are,  ac- 
cording to  the  report  of  the  Indian  Bureau,  twenty-six 
different  boards  representing  twenty-one  evangelical 
Protestant  denominations  at  work  among  them.  Par- 
tial statistics  available  from  eighteen  of  these  denomi- 
nations show  that  there  are  missions  in  over  one  hundred 
tribes  and  tribal  bands,  with  five  hundred  churches  and 
as  many  out  stations.  More  than  two  hundred  and 
fifty  white  workers  and  three  hundred  native  helpers, 
interpreters  and  assistants  serve  these  points.  The  an- 
nual expenditure  of  all  Indian  missions,  according  to  the 
report  of  the  Home  Missions  Council,  does  not  exceed 
$300,000.00. 

The  work  of  the  Catholic  Church  is  perhaps  more  ex- 
tensive than  that  of  the  Protestant.  The  Commissioner 
of  Indian  Affairs  reports  that  there  are  58,646  church- 
going  Catholics,  while  44,730  are  members  of  the  Pro- 
testant Churches.  It  is  estimated  that  less  than  one- 
third  of  the  Indian  population  is  identified  with  any 
Christian  Church,  and  approximately  46,000  are  in  tribes 
where  there  is  no  opportunity  to  learn  of  Jesus  Christ 


PAYING  A  DEBT  57 

from  either  Protestant  or  Roman  Catholic  missionaries. 
There  are  26,000  children  of  school  age  without  school 
provision  of  any  kind.  The  Home  Missions  Coiwicil  is 
undertaking  to  allocate  to  the  various  Churches  respon- 
sibility for  these  unreached  tribes.  The  Executive 
Committee  of  Home  Missions  was  asked  to  accept  the 
responsibility  for  an  unreached  tribe  in  New  Mexico. 
The  Committee  was  unable,  on  account  of  inadequate 
funds  and  the  inability  to  find  workers,  to  accept  this 
added  responsibility. 

The  Work  of  Our  Church.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
Civil  War  the  five  civilized  tribes  in  Oklahoma  sided 
with  the  Confederacy.  It  is  estimated  that  the  Choc- 
taw  nation  furnished  3,000  soldiers  for  service,  and  the 
Cherokee  nation  2,000.  The  Indian  work  of  the  South- 
ern Presbyterian  Church  began  with  the  organization 
of  the  General  Assembly.  It  has  always  had  a  large 
place  in  the  Church's  sympathy  and  prayers,  though 
the  financial  support  has  never  been  equal  to  the  need 
and  the  opportunity. 

The  Indian  Missions  was  the  first  Foreign  Mission 
work  attempted  by  the  Southern  Presbyterian  Church, 
and  for  twenty-eight  years  it  was  a  responsibility  of  the 
Foreign  Mission  Committee.  In  1889  the  Indian  work 
was  transferred  to  the  Executive  Committee  of  Home 
Missions  and  since  that  time  has  been  an  important 
factor  in  the  department  of  Home  Missions. 

In  the  Minutes  of  the  first  Assembly  of  1861,  this  ac- 
tion is  recorded: 

Resolved: 

2.  That  the  Assembly  accepts  with  joyful  gratitude 
to  God  the  care  of  these  missions  among  our  Southwes- 
tern Indian  tribes,  the  Choctaws,  Chickasaws,  Creeks, 


58  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

Seminoles  and  Cherokees,  thus  thrown  upon  them  by 
His  providence;  missions  whose  whole  history  has  been 
signaljzed  by  a  degree  of  success  attending  few  other 
modern  missions;  to  a  people  comprising  nearly  seventy 
thousand  souls,  to  whom  we  are  bound  by  obligations 
of  special  tenderness  and  strength,  and  whose  spiritual 
interests  must  ever  be  dear  to  the  Christians  of  this  land. 

3 so  at  the  very  moment  of  commencing 

our  separate  existence  we  find  them  forming  in  fact  an 
organized  part  of  our  body;  and  also  in  the  promptitude 
with  which  our  Church  has  advanced  to  their  support— 
the  Assembly  recognizes  most  gratefully  the  clear  fore- 
shadowing of  the  Divine  purpose  to  make  our  beloved 
Church  an  eminently  missionary  Church;  and  a  heart- 
stirring  call  upon  all  her  people  to  engage  in  this  blessed 
work  with  new  zeal  and  self-denial. 

What  has  Been  Wrought?  During  the  sixty  years 
of  our  service,  about  three  thousand  have  been  received 
into  the  Church.  At  present  there  are  in  Indian  Pres- 
bytery twenty-two  churches,  with  seven  hundred  mem- 
bers. The  Indian  churches  are  all  in  the  country,  many 
of  them  miles  from  any  railroad.  Some  have  simple  log 
churches.  Yet  an  Indian  church  has  no  Sabbath  with- 
out divine  worship.  If  there  is  no  minister,  an  elder  or 
some  member  will  conduct  the  service.  In  this  way  the 
church  is  kept  alive.  The  Indians  love  their  Church  and 
contribute  to  its  work.  In  every  financial  campaign  the 
Indian  churches  have  subscribed  their  quota.  The  pres- 
ent small  membership  is  due  to  the  fact  that  when  Okla- 
homa became  a  State,  and  the  allotment  of  the  land  "was 
made  to  the  tribes,  many  of  our  members  moved  away 
from  their  old  homes.  While  they  have  been  lost  to  our 
Church,  they  are  in  the  membership  of  other  denomina- 
tions. It  has  always  been  difficult  to  secure  ministers 
for  the  Indian  churches.  This  has  been  the  supreme 


PAYING  A  DEBT  59 

need  and  the  great  lack  through  all  the  years.  There  is 
no  greater  field  of  service  for  a  consecrated  minister  of 
Jesus  Christ  than  to  be  pastor,  minister  and  friend  to 
these  grateful  and  appreciative  people.  In  this  work 
there  have  been  some  of  the  noblest  men  in  our  ministry. 
The  following  account  by  a  visitor  to  a  recent  meeting 
of  Indian  Presbytery  shows  something  of  the  love  and 
devotion  of  the  Indians  to  their  Church: 

"Going  to  Presbytery  with  the  Indians,  does  not 
mean  to  rush  off  at  the  last  minute  or  perhaps  wait  until 
the  second  session,  rush  through  with  the  most  impor- 
tant business,  get  leave  of  absence  and  rush  home  before 
Presbytery  closes.  On  the  contrary,  every  minister  and 
elder  is  there  unless  prevented  by  serious  illness,  and 
usually  takes  the  entire  family.  Many  other  families 
go  as  visitors,  especially  those  whose  women  are  repre- 
sentatives to  the  Presbyterial,  and  all  are  present  before 
opening  session  and  remain  until  the  close.  This  Pres- 
bytery convened  Tuesday  night  and  did  not  close  until 
the  following  Monday  morning.  It  included  a  Sunday- 
school  institute  and  meeting  of  the  Brotherhood,  and 
was  truly  a  time  of  great  spiritual  refreshing.  Of  the 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  adults  present,  only  three 
were  white  people. 

"The  five  or  six  families  belonging  to  this  church  had 
all  moved  over  and  camped  in  two-room  shacks  near  the 
church,  to  entertain  the  Presbytery.  Beds,  stoves  and 
dishes  galore  were  in  evidence.  In  one  corner  of  the 
church,  bedding  was  piled  high,  and  many  men  slept 
on  its  floor.  In  the  camp  houses,  beds  covered  the  floors. 
Seven  of  their  nine  ministers  were  present,  and  fifteen 
elders,  which  shows  their  interest  in  their  church  courts. 
Each  day  opened  with  a  sunrise  prayer  meeting.  There 
was  the  usual  eleven  o'clock  public  worship,  also  at 
seven-thirty  daily. 

"A  most  encouraging  report  was:  Eleven  candidates 
for  the  ministry,  and  two  licentiates.  Soon  their  churches 


PAYING  A  DEBT  61 

will  be  supplied.  Again,  we  could  learn  a  lesson  from 
their  faithful  devotion.  Their  membership  is  so  scat- 
tered, many  of  them  living  long  distances  from  their 
church.  Their  work  is  carried  on  under  such  handicaps 
and  difficulties  as  would  discourage  the  average  white 
church  of  the  present,  and  cause  many  to  abandon  the 
work.  The  growth  of  the  Indian  churches  means  more 
of  work,  of  effort  and  self-sacrifice  than  we  can  possibly 
understand,  and  is  a  strong  appeal  for  our  interest,  sym- 
pathy and  prayers. 

"And  the  children!  What  an  appeal  they  are!  Think 
of  sixty  or  seventy  children  and  young  people  attending 
Presbytery!  We  photographed  fifty-five  and  did  not 
get  all.  Children  are  taught  the  Bible,  catechism,  and 
to  pray.  They  attend  worship  and  sit  quietly  and  rev- 
erently, then  join  in  the  singing  as  heartily  as  their  elders. 
How  they  love  to  sing.  Their  voices  are  musical  and 
although  much  of  the  singing  was  in  Choctaw,  the  old 
familiar  hymns  of  our  Church  were  recognized,  and  one 
was  conscious  of  their  spirit  of  worship.  In  every  ses- 
sion we  felt  the  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  know 
that  Presbytery  means  much  to  these  people. 

"Sunday  was  a  wonderful  day.  It  opened  with  the 
sunrise  prayer  meeting.  The  Sunday-school  numbered 
one  hundred  and  eleven.  The  eleven  o'clock  worship 
was  followed  by  a  memorial  service  for  the  deceased  wife 
of  a  minister.  At  three  o'clock  there  was  a  strong  ser- 
mon. All  professing  Christians  were  asked  to  rise.  It 
looked  like  every  one  did.  When  those  who  were  not 
Christians  were  asked  to  rise,  there  were  only  nine  in  all 
that  congregation  that  stood. 

"Monday  morning,  following  the  sunrise  prayer  meet- 
ing, the  entire  crowd  assembled  for  farewell,  forming  in 
one  large  semi-circle  in  front  of  the  church,  men  on  one 
side,  women  on  the  other  with  a  group  of  young  men  in 
center  to  lead  the  singing.  As  they  sang  one  after  an- 
other of  the  cherished  hymns,  the  members  of  the  local 
church,  children  and  all,  passed  down  the  line  shaking 
hands  and  telling  their  guests  good-bye.  The  minister 


62  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

at  head  of  semi-circle  next  fell  in  line,  and  one  by  one 
they  followed  until  finally  each  had  shaken  hands  with 
the  other  and  all  said  good-bye.  It  was  a  most  impres- 
sive farewell,  and  there  were  not  many  dry  eyes  in  the 
gathering.  The  older  ones  are  rapidly  passing  away. 
The  coming  generation  will  present  a  new  problem  to 
the  Church."* 

The  Committee  also  ministers  to  the  Alabama  In- 
dians, a  small  tribe  near  Kiam,  Texas.  The  work  was 
opened  in  1881.  The  missionaries  found  this  tribe, 
wearing  blankets  and  feathers,  heathen  in  a  nominal 
Christian  land.  After  forty  years  of  service  every  per- 
son in  the  reservation  between  the  ages  of  twelve  and 
thirty  can  read  English,  and  practically  every  adult  is 
a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  For  twenty-five 
years  Rev.  and  Mrs.  C.  W.  Chambers  have  labored  in 
this  field,  Mrs.  Chambers  as  teacher  and  Mr.  Chambers 
as  pastor  of  the  church.  Their  only  daughter,  born  in 
the  reservation,  is  now  a  missionary  in  Africa. 

Oklahoma  Presbyterian  College  for  Girls.  It  was 
early  recognized  that  the  Church's  greatest  opportunity 
is  with  the  youth,  and  Mission  schools  have  been  the 
chief  evangelistic  agency  in  all  mission  work.  Many 
devoted  Christian  women  whose  hearts  God  had  touched 
with  the  Indian  appeal,  gave  themselves  to  the  Indian 
children  out  of  pity  and  love  and  a  desire  to  serve.  In 
many  communities  the  mission  teacher  was  the  only 
white  person.  Largely  through  their  efforts  the  Five 
Civilized  Tribes  have  been  lifted  from  paganism  into  the 
light  of  Christianity.  With  the  coming  of  Statehood 
and  the  public  school,  many  of  the  church  schools  were 
discontinued.  One  of  these  Indian  Mission  Schools  has 


•Mrs.  C.  S.  Everts. 


PAYING  A^DEBT  63 

grown  into  the  Oklahoma  Presbyterian  College  for  Girls. 
It  is  the  largest  and  most  important  missionary  institu- 
tion of  the  Southern  Presbyterian  Church  in  Oklahoma, 
or  all  the  Southwest.  This  school  wields  perhaps  the 
greatest  Christian  influence  of  any  institution  in  this 
new  state.  Only  eighteen  per  cent  of  the  population 
of  Oklahoma  is  connected  with  the  Christian  Church. 
Almost  without  exception  the  students  in  this  Christian 
school  are  brought  to  Christ,  and  they  go  out  to  found 
Christian  homes  and  to  be  leaders  and  helpers  in  Chris- 
tian work. 

The  girls  attending  this  school  do  not  all  come  from 
the  homes  of  our  Presbyterian  Indians,  but  they  come 
from  homes  that  are  not  Christian,  and  from  homes  in 
remote  country  districts  with  little  idea  of  civic  improve- 
ment, home  making  or  sanitation.  Being  a  mission  school 
the  charges  are  very  low.  Many  poor  girls  are  able  to 
work  their  way  through  by  serving  in  the  dining  room, 
or  in  the  care  of  the  dormitories.  They  are  taken  often- 
times with  little  or  no  preparation,  and  careful  teachers 
lead  them  through  the  several  grades.  They  are  sent 
out  not  only  improved  in  personal  appearance  and  mental 
development,  but  strong  Christian  characters  ready  for 
efficient  service.  The  following  quotation  is  taken  from 
a  letter  written  by  a  sixteen  year  old  Choctaw  girl.  She 
came  from  a  home  in  the  Kiamichi  Mountains  in  Eastern 
Oklahoma : 

"I  came  here  four  years  ago,  and  now  the  college  has 
grown  almost  as  dear  to  me  as  my  own  home,  for  many 
different  reasons.  Not  only  have  I  attained  knowledge 
from  a  worldly  standpoint,  but  I  have  also  attained  a 
better  and  more  trusting  conception  of  Jesus  Christ 
than  I  ever  had  before,  which  I  feel  has  benefited  me 


64  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

more  than  all  the  worldly  knowledge  I  could  ever  mas- 
ter. I  am  thankful  I  am  not  the  only  one  who  has  had 
this  experience,  but  almost  all  the  girls  have." 

Another  girl,  coming  from  an  Indian  home,  graduating 
from  the  College,  is  President  of  the  District  Christian 
Endeavor  Union,  a  teacher  in  the  public  school  and  an 
active  leader  in  Christian  work  in  her  community. 
Another  came  to  the  College  from  a  town  in  which  there 
is  not  a  church  of  any  denomination.  She  was  brought 
to  Christ,  and  sent  home  a  Christian.  It  is  impossible 
to  measure  the  influence  for  good  of  this  Mission  School 
in  this  great  and  growing  state.  If  the  Indian  mission 
work  of  our  Church  had  accomplished  no  more  than  the 
establishment  of  the  Oklahoma  Presbyterian  College, 
as  an  institution  for  righteousness  in  this  new  state,  it 
would  have  been  abundantly  worth  while. 

Christian  Workers  Needed.  There  is  an  urgent 
call  for  pastors  to  serve  the  Indian  churches  and  train 
them  in  the  way  of  Christian  living;  for  Sunday-school 
missionaries  to  gather  the  thousands  of  young  people 
growing  up  in  this  new  country  without  Christian  train- 
ing. A  great  and  needy  field  awaits  anyone  desiring  an 
opportunity  to  render  a  real  service  to  Christ  and  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  Our  Church  acknowledged  its  debt 
to  the  Indians  in  the  beginning,  and  it  is  for  us  who  live 
in  this  day  to  see  that  it  is  paid. 

Mrs.  Bella  McCallum  Gibbons,  who  has  spent  the 
greater  part  of  her  life  in  work  among  the  Choctaws  and 
who  knows  their  needs  perhaps  as  well  as  anyone  in  the 
Church,  says: 

"The  Indians  are  fast  becoming  civilized,  but  the  con- 
ditions which  surround  them  are  more  deplorable  than 


PAYING  A  DEBT  65 

they  were  fifty  years  ago.  Then  the  missionary  had 
only  to  fight  the  traditions,  the  superstitions  and  cus- 
toms of  the  Indians.  Now  the  greatest  battle  the  mis- 
sionary has  is  to  'keep  the  Indian  from  falling  into  the 
vices  with  which  our  own  race  is  fast  surrounding  him. 
Sabbath-breaking,  drunkenness,  divorce,  immoral  liv- 
ing, grafting,  cheating,  are  vices  that  have  crept  into 
their  country.  Some  to  all  appearances  have  come  to 
stay.  Indians  are  by  nature  a  reverent  people.  Chris- 
tian Indians  reverence  the  Sabbath,  yet  Sunday  baseball 
has  been  the  means  of  leading  hundreds  of  Indian  boys 
away  from  home,  away  from  all  church  influences,  away 
from  religion,  away  from  God.  Oklahoma  is  by  its 
Constitution  a  temperance  state,  yet  unscrupulous  per- 
sons by  the  hundreds  manage  to  evade  the  law  and  sell 
intoxicating  liquors.  And  the  worst  thing  about  it  is 
that  it  is  whiskey  of  the  vilest  sort,  oftentimes  made 
from  chemicals  of  a  poisonous  nature.  They  sell  it  to 
Indians  by  the  quart,  by  the  gallon,  and  by  the  case. 
Anyone  who  knows  anything  about  Indians  knows  how 
whiskey  maddens  and  destroys  them. 

"The  divorce  evil,  another  custom  our  civilization 
has  given  them,  is  also  becoming  very  common.  It  is 
no  unusual  thing  now  for  Indians  to  get  divorces  through 
our  courts.  Still,  let  it  be  said  to  their  credit,  it  is  not 
yet  so  common  with  them  as  it  is  with  us,  and  it  is  al- 
most unknown  among  the  older  full-bloods." 

An  elder  from  Indian  Presbytery,  speaking  at  the 
General  Assembly,  said  that  when  the  Indians  were 
taken  from  the  East  and  placed  in  Oklahoma  is  the  only 
time  on  record  that  an  Indian  ever  beat  an  American 
in  a  land  trade.  But  many  of  our  Indians  are  now  in 
danger  of  losing  their  last  home  through  the  dishonest 
dealings  of  unscrupulous  white  men.  Is  it  any  wonder 
that  long  ago  Wendell  Phillips  said,  "The  Indian  race 
is  the  one  which  the  people  of  the  United  States  have 
most  dread  to  meet  at  the  judgment  bar  of  Almighty  God." 


CHAPTER  III — Continued. 

PAYING  A  DEBT 
SECTION  II. — NEGROES 


One  out  of  every  ten  people  in  the  continental  United 
States  is  a  Negro.  The  present  Negro  population  is 
between  ten  and  eleven  million,  more  than  double 
that  of  1865. 

In  1916  thirteen  Southern  States  reported  Negro 
populations  of  more  than  200,000.  In  eight  of  them 
the  number  exceeded  600,000.  These  thirteen  states 
contained  six-sevenths  of  the  Negro  population  of  the 
country. 

Five  out  of  every  eleven  Negroes  in  the  United  States 
are  church  members.  In  1916  according  to  the  best 
information  Negro  church  organizations  had  37,773 
church  edifices  and  3,618  parsonages. 

The  usual  type  of  building  and  equipment  of  the 
average  Negro  country  church  consists  of  an  unpainted 
frame  structure,  with  rough  benches,  a  platform  and 
pulpit  for  the  preacher.  Preaching  services  are  held 
about  once  or  twice  a  month. 

The  minister  is  usually  non-resident,  often  living 
and  working  at  some  other  occupation  in  a  nearby 
city.  He  usually  conies  to  the  community  Saturday 
night  or  Sunday  morning,  and  leaves  at  the  close  of 
his  Sunday  labors. 

Here  is  a  call  for  Home  Mission  Boards  to  send 
trained  men  to  these  neglected  people. 

Former  Ambassador  Bryce  once  said  that  the  Amer- 
ican Negro  in  the  first  thirty  years  of  his  liberation 
made  a  greater  advance  than  was  ever  made  by  the 
Anglo-Saxon  in  a  similar  period  of  years. 

— American  Survey. 


III.— Continued. 

PA  YING  A  DEBT 

II.  NEGROES 

There  is  another  debt  the  Church  frankly  acknowl- 
edged at  the  very  beginning  of  its  organization.  Rising 
above  the  awful  prejudices  of  the  times  and  ignoring 
the  cruel  disappointments  and  losses  of  the  war,  the 
Assembly  of  1865  addressed  the  following  exhortation 
to  the  Churches: 

"The  General  Assembly  solemnly  admonishes  our 
ministers,  churches  and  peoples,  and  do  enjoin  upon 
them  not  in  any  wise  to  intermit  their  labors  for  the  re- 
ligious instruction  of  the  colored  people  of  our  land. 
While  the  change  in  their  legal  and  domestic  relations 
does  not  release  the  Church  from  its  obligations  to  seek 
their  moral  and  spiritual  welfare,  their  helpless  condi- 
tion and  their  greater  exposure  to  temptation,  leading 
to  vice,  irreligion  and  ruin,  both  temporal  and  eternal, 
which  result  from  that  change,  make  the  strongest  ap- 
peal to  our  supplying  them  with  the  saving  ordinances 
of  the  gospel." 

The  4,000,000  Negroes  in  the  United  States  when  this 
deliverance  was  made  have  increased  to  10,463,013. 
The  conditions  that  the  Church  fathers  foresaw  and  so 
clearly  set  forth  in  the  Assembly's  exhortation,  have 
come  to  pass.  That  resolution  accurately  describes  the 
Negro's  present  needs  and  the  Church's  most  urgent 
duty.  Because  that  admonition  of  the  Assembly  was 
not  fully  obeyed,  the  evangelization  of  the  Negro  is  an 


70  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

undertaking  that  demands  a  greatly  enlarged  effort  on 
the  part  of  the  Church  today.  Of  the  total  Negro  pop- 
ulation in  the  United  States  about  eighty-five  per  cent 
live  in  the  South,  and  fifteen  per  cent  are  in  the  North 
and  West.  From  1910  to  1920  almost  one-half  million 
colored  people  moved  from  the  Southern  States,  in- 
creasing the  Negro  population  of  the  North  about  fifty 
per  cent.  They  have  largely  settled  in  the  cities,  and 
the  largest  numbers  in  cities  where  a  few  years  ago  the 
Negro  population  was  relatively  very  small.  In  ten 
years  the  Negro  population  of  St.  Louis  increased  sixty 
per  cent,  Omaha  one  hundred  and  thirty-three  per  cent, 
Chicago  one  hundred  and  fifty  per  cent,  Youngstown 
two  hundred  and  forty  per  cent,  Cleveland  three  hundred 
per  cent,  Detroit  six  hundred  per  cent,  and  Gary  thir- 
teen hundred  per  cent.  Natural  segregation  has  oc- 
curred with  the  result  that  they  constitute  Negro  cities 
within  cities.  The  Harlem  section  of  New  York  City 
in  numbers,  in  wealth  and  life  has  become  the  largest 
purely  Negro  metropolis  not  only  of  America  but  of  the 
world. 

"The  Negro  faces  serious  problems  when  he  migrates 
from  his  southern  surroundings  to  a  northern  neighbor- 
hood. He  enjoys  larger  liberty  but  pays  an  excessive 
rent,  to  raise  which  he  must  crowd  his  rooms  with  pro- 
miscuous lodgers,  a  danger  to  health  and  an  impairment 
to  family  life. 

"Northern  migration  brings  problems  for  both  the 
Negro  and  his  white  neighbors,  but  the  odds  are  against 
the  Negro.  Keener  competition,  racial  animosity  and 
unfair  discrimination  are  in  the  scale  against  him."  * 


'American  Survey. 


PAYING  A  DEBT  71 

While  the  great  majority  of  the  Negroes  doubtless 
will  continue  to  live  in  the  South,  and  be  peculiarly  a 
Southern  missionary  responsibility,  the  people  of  other 
sections  must  have  more  than  a  detached  interest  in 
them.  Since  the  people  of  the  North  have  had  an  op- 
portunity to  study  the  Negro  at  close  range  the  two  sec- 
tions are  getting  on  speaking  terms  when  the  Negro  is 
the  subject  of  discussion.  There  is  every  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  we  are  coming  more  and  more  into  an  atmos- 
phere of  reason  and  moderation  in  regard  to  the  Negroes 
and  what  the  whites  should  do  for  them  and  expect  from 
them.  It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  brief  study  to  discuss 
the  various  phases  of  the  Negro  problem,  but  to  consider 
the  many  needs  of  these  people  and  our  duty  to  them 
from  the  standpoint  of  Christianity.  There  are  two 
sides  to  the  Negro  question — their  side  and  our  side — 
and  our  side  is  the  more  important  of  the  two. 

In  its  service  for  the  colored  people  the  Southern  Pres- 
byterian Church  has  organized  its  work  along  the  fol- 
lowing lines  of  effort: 

Stillman  Institute  for  Training  Workers.  A 
clean,  upright  and  efficient  leadership  is  primary  in  the 
moral  improvement  of  any  race.  Christianity  without 
education  means  to  the  Negro  little  more  than  heathen 
superstition.  Many  Negro  ministers  and  teachers  have 
had  no  preparation  and  are  not  qualified  either  by  intel- 
lectual training  or  moral  character  to  be  spiritual  leaders 
and  interpreters  of  God's  Word  or  teachers  of  the  youth. 

(a)  Boys'  School.  To  meet  the  need  for  a  capable 
colored  ministry,  the  General  Assembly  in  1876  founded 
what  is  known  as  Stillman  Institute,  at  Tuscaloosa,  Ala- 
bama. Since  its  organization  this  school  has  sent  per- 
haps one  hundred  colored  ministers  into  our  own  work, 


72  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

in  the  home  and  foreign  fields,  and  into  the  work  of  other 
denominations.  Negro  boys  over  seventeen  years  of  age 
of  good  character  are  given  a  thorough  normal  course, 
including  teacher-training,  farming,  dairying,  and  other 
industries,  leading  to  a  special  course  for  those  who  wish 
to  become  ministers  and  missionaries.  In  the  theological 
department  a  three-year  course  is  provided,  covering  the 
English  branches  offered  in  a  theological  seminary.  The 
teachers  are  white  men  who  teach  by  precept  and  exam- 
ple. All  students  are  required  to  work  in  the  shop  or 
on  the  farm  twenty-one  hours  per  week,  in  part  payment 
of  their  expenses.  Wherever  the  graduates  of  Stillman 
Institute  have  gone,  it  is  the  universal  testimony  that 
they  have  the  confidence  and  respect  of  both  races,  and 
are  an  influence  for  good  in  their  communities. 

(6)  Girls1  School.  This  is  a  new  departure  in  our  work 
for  colored  people.  The  Church  has  long  felt  the  need 
of  a  school  for  girls,  and  such  a  school  has  long  been  the 
desire  of  our  colored  ministers.  "No  race  rises  higher 
than  its  womanhood."  Of  no  people  is  this  truer  than 
of  the  colored  people  of  the  South.  If  this  race  is  to  be 
elevated  and  purified,  the  home  is  the  foundation  on 
which  this  progress  must  rest.  The  mother  determines 
the  character  of  the  home.  The  Church  cannot  render 
its  full  service  to  any  race  by  means  of  the  pulpit  alone. 
If  the  immense  task  of  Christianizing  the  colored  race  is 
to  be  accomplished,  the  number  of  Christian  women  must 
be  multiplied.  They  are  needed  to  teach  the  lessons  of 
purity  and  honesty  in  the  colored  public  schools. 
Trained  nurses  are  needed  to  give  instruction  in  the  laws 
of  health  and  sanitation.  There  must  be  workers  for 
the  congested  Negro  settlements  of  our  cities,  to  teach 
right  living  and  respect  for  the  law.  Missionaries  are 


PAYING  A  DEBT  73 

needed  to  po  into  the  country  districts  and  establish  Sun- 
day-schools. It  is  the  purpose  of  this  school  to  give  a 
practical  Christian  industrial  training  to  colored  Pres- 
byterian girls  who  wish  to  go  out  to  found  Christian 
homes,  and  be  Christian  teachers  and  leaders  of  their 
race. 

Supporting  Colored  Pastors  and  Churches. 
There  are  in  the  Southern  Presbyterian  Church  thirty- 
eight  colored  ministers  who  serve  fifty-nine  churches  and 
missions.  These  churches  are  organized  into  four  Pres- 
byteries which  compose  the  Snedecor  Memorial  Synod. 
This  Synod  sustains  the  same  relation  to  the  General 
Assembly  as  the  other  Synods.  Its  Presbyteries  are 
represented  in  the  General  Assembly  on  the  same  foot- 
ing as  the  white  Presbyteries.  The  Home  Mission  Com- 
mittee aids  in  the  support  of  the  pastors,  and  assists 
in  the  building  of  their  churches  and  manses.  These 
Presbyteries  conduct  their  own  affairs,  develop  their  own 
leadership,  and  participate  in  all  the  work  of  the  General 
Assembly.  Our  colored  churches  are  few  in  number  and 
usually  have  a  small  membership,  but  every  colored 
Presbyterian  pastor  stands  for  a  clean  home  life,  rever- 
ence for  God,  respect  for  law  and  order,  and  contributes 
to  the  friendly  relations  between  the  races.  It  is  ad- 
mitted by  all  that  a  Presbyterian  Negro  is  the  highest 
type  of  a  Christian  Negro. 

Promoting  Colored  Sunday-schools  Taught  by 
White  Teachers.  This  is  one  of  the  largest  fields  of 
service  before  the  white  people  of  the  South.  In  almost 
every  community  there  are  Negro  children  growing  up 
in  idleness,  ignorance  and  sin,  who  can  be  gathered  to- 
gether on  Sunday  afternoons  for  religious  training. 
There  is  no  record  of  the  number  of  churches  that  have 


74 


UNFINISHED  TASKS 


accepted  this  missionary  opportunity,  but  it  should  be 
regarded  as  a  part  of  the  Sunday  school  responsibility 
of  every  white  church  where  there  is  need  for  this  service. 
There  is  no  record  of  a  single  instance  where  an  effort 
to  establish  such  a  Sunday-school  has  failed  on  account 
of  a  lack  of  interest  among  the  Negroes. 

Institutional  Churches  and  Missions.  In  three 
southern  cities  there  are  well  established  missions  that 
are  ministering  to  the  spiritual,  physical  and  material 
welfare  of  the  colored  people.  These  missions  demon- 
strate what  can  be  accomplished  for  the  Negroes  by 
capable  and  conscientious  leaders. 


READY  FOR  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 


PAYING  A  DEBT  75 

(a)  Presbyterian  Colored  Missions,  Louisville,  Kentucky. 
This  is  the  largest  and  most  important  work  that  is  being 
done  for  Negroes  in  any  southern  city.  It  is  the  pioneer 
in  this  needy  field,  and  has  pointed  the  way  for  similar 
Christian  enterprises  in  other  places.  The  work  began 
in  a  small  Negro  Sunday-school  conducted  by  Rev.  John 
Little  and  his  associates,  while  students  in  the  Ken- 
tucky Theological  Seminary.  Mr.  Little  has  been  super- 
intendent of  this  work  since  its  beginning.  The  story 
of  this  mission  from  the  founding  in  1898  is  an  inspiring 
record  of  Christian  achievement.  It  is  the  story  of  a 
man  with  vision,  purpose  and  unfailing  devotion  to  duty. 
One  possessing  less  faith  and  determination  could  not 
have  succeeded  in  face  of  the  discouragements  and  dis- 
appointments, and  the  indifference  of  the  churches  in 
the  early  days. 

The  following  brief  description  of  the  many-sided  ac- 
tivities of  these  missions  is  condensed  from  a  report  of 
Rev.  John  Little,  superintendent: 

"The  Presbyterian  Colored  Missions  are  two  insti- 
tutional churches  with  their  doors  open  every  day  in  the 
year  trying  to  put  into  practice  the  gospel  that  is 
preached  on  the  Sabbath.  The  religious  services  run 
straight  through  the  year;  the  industrial  classes  vary 
according  to  the  season.  The  idea  in  the  minds  of  the 
workers  is  to  help  all  who  enter  the  doors  to  be  better 
men,  women  and  children  when  they  go  out  than  when 
they  came  in. 

"The  activities  include  religious  instruction,  sewing, 
crocheting,  embroidery,  cooking,  canning,  shoe  repair- 
ing, chair  caning,  and  simple  wood  work.  Each  morn- 
ing of  the  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days  in  the  year 
new  problems  are  presented  to  the  workers  by  the  1,500 
different  people  who  enter  the  doors  to  attend  classes 
which  meet  on  fixed  days  and  fixed  hours. 


76  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

"The  six  theological  students  who  founded  the  relig- 
ious instruction  of  the  Presbyterian  Colored  Mission 
twenty-three  years  ago  with  twenty-three  pupils,  would 
be  surprised  to  see  the  two  Sunday-schools  with  eight 
hundred  and  forty-two  pupils  in  charge  of  fifty-four 
white  men  and  women  representing  many  of  the  evan- 
gelical churches  in  the  city.  For  a  number  of  years  five 
religious  services  have  been  held  each  Sunday — one 
preaching  service  in  the  morning,  two  preaching  ser- 
vices in  the  evening,  and  two  Sunday-schools  in  the  after- 
noon. Out  of  these  Sunday-schools  has  grown  a  well 
organized  colored  church  with  a  consecrated  minister, 
Rev.  W.  H.  Sheppard,  as  its  pastor,  eighteen  devoted 
officers  and  two  hundred  and  twenty-seven  members. 
The  people  in  this  congregation  are  regular  in  their  at- 
tendance, reverent  in  their  worship,  generous  in  their 
offerings,  cordial  to  strangers,  and  deeply  interested  in 
the  evangelization  of  the  world. 

"Each  day  in  the  week  from  October  until  June,  a 
class  in  sewing  can  be  seen  in  operation.  It  is  hard  for 
one  to  realize  when  he  steps  into  the  room  and  sees  one 
of  the  eleven  classes  and  knows  that  there  are  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty-one  girls  and  women  who  receive  instruc- 
tion, that  this  sewing  work  had  its  beginning  with  one 
teacher,  six  girls,  and  twenty-five  cents  in  material. 
The  sewing  school  has  a  regular  system  of  training,  lead- 
ing from  the  basting  stitch  to  the  completed  dress. 

"Under  the  direction  of  one  of  the  former  pupils,  who 
has  had  the  advantages  of  courses  at  Hampton  and  Tus- 
kegee,  each  week  there  are  classes  in  cooking.  The  girls 
are  taught  to  prepare  wholesome  food,  and  are  given 
many  additional  lessons  that  they  would  not  ordinarily 
secure.  In  the  summer  months,  at  both  mission  sta- 
tions, canning  clubs  are  conducted. 

"Under  the  direction  of  a  graduate  of  Tuskegee,  two 
nights  each  week  a  group  of  boys  gather  for  training  in 
shoe  repairing.  Many  an  old  shoe  has  been  made  to 
revive  its  usefulness  at  an  astonishingly  low  price.  The 
boys  not  only  repair  their  own  shoes,  but  the  various 


78  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

members  of  the  family  and  of  the  Sunday-school  and 
church  patronize  the  shop.  In  this,  as  in  all  other  in- 
dustrial classes,  whoever  enjoys  its  privileges  pays  for 
the  cost  of  the  material  used. 

"The  Daily  Vacation  Bible  School  has  been  incorpo- 
rated as  a  regular  part  of  the  annual  program.  In 
July,  after  the  public  schools  are  closed,  the  church  doors 
are  open  each  morning  for  the  Daily  Vacation  Bible 
School.  Thirty  minutes  are  devoted  to  religious  instruc- 
tion; thirty  minutes  to  learning  good  music;  and  an  hour 
and  a  half  to  some  form  of  industrial  work  different 
from  that  taught  in  the  winter  months.  The  girls  cro- 
chet and  embroider;  the  boys  cane  chairs,  do  simple 
wood  work,  bind  books,  and  make  hammocks. 

"The  workers  have  a  feeling  of  satisfaction  that  an 
increased  number  of  pupils  are  wearing  clothes  that  they 
made;  that  many  of  their  shoes  have  been  repaired;  that 
more  wholesome  food  is  served  in  numbers  of  homes; 
that  many  who  were  sick  have  been  brought  under  the 
care  of  skilled  nurses,  physicians  and  surgeons;  that  an 
increasing  number  are  daily  planning  their  lives  in  con- 
formity with  the  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ." 

(b)  The  Seventeenth  Street  Mission,  Richmond,  Vir- 
ginia. This  mission  is  located  in  the  heart  of  the  worst 
slum  district  in  the  city.  It  was  begun  by  some  students 
in  Union  Theological  Seminary,  who  started  the  first 
Sunday-school  by  literally  going  out  into  the  highways 
and  compelling  some  negro  children  to  come  in.  This 
nucleus  has  expanded  into  a  thriving,  graded  Sunday- 
school,  with  more  than  three  hundred  scholars  and  a  fine 
corps  of  teachers  in  every  department.  A  splendid 
brick  building,  costing  $19,000  has  been  provided  for 
the  mission  by  the  Presbyterian  League  of  Richmond. 

The  scope  of  this  mission  includes  a  club  for  boys,  a 
girls'  club,  and  a  sewing  school  with  three  teachers. 
There  is  a  Christian  Endeavor  meeting  and  a  preaching 


PAYING  A  DEBT  79 

service  every  Sunday  night.  The  mission  is  having  a 
marked  influence  for  good  in  the  community.  The  busi- 
ness men  in  the  district  attest  the  vast  improvement  in 
the  social  life  and  morality  of  both  the  children  and  the 
older  people.  The  mission  is  given  credit  for  breaking 
up  one  of  the  worst  gangs  of  boys  in  Richmond,  and  has 
abolished  a  great  deal  of  mischief  that  formerly  gave  the 
Juvenile  Court  much  to  do. 

A  striking  illustration  of  the  influence  of  the  mission 
in  the  lives  of  the  Negro  boys  recently  occurred.  Three 
boys  were  brought  into  the  court  charged  with  stealing 
clothes.  The  two  older  boys  promptly  denied  their 
guilt,  and  placed  it  upon  the  youngest.  The  little  fel- 
low in  reply  to  the  Judge's  question  as  to  whether  he 
had  taken  the  clothes,  said,  "No  sir,  before  God  I 
didn't  take  no  clothes."  The  Judge  called  his  attention 
to  the  fact  that  he  had  used  the  name  of  God,  and  asked 
him  what  he  knew  about  God.  Immediately  he  an- 
swered: "God  is  Spirit,  infinite,  eternal  and  unchange- 
able in  His  being,  wisdom,  power,  holiness,  justice,  good- 
ness and  truth."  The  Judge,  in  surprise,  asked  where 
he  had  learned  that;  and  he  answered,  "At  the  Seven- 
teenth Street  Mission.  Investigation  proved  him  to  be 
innocent  of  the  charge. 

(c)  Presbyterian  Colored  Missions,  Atlanta,  Georgia. 
This  work  has  two  centers,  located  in  the  midst  of  large 
Negro  settlements.  The  work  had  its  beginning  in  a 
colored  Sunday-school  taught  by  white  teachers.  In 
1918  following  the  practical  example  of  the  Louisville 
Colored  Mission,  and  with  the  inspiration  and  help  of 
Rev.  John  Little,  the  Presbyterian  Colored  Mission  of 
Atlanta  was  organized  along  institutional  lines,  with  a 
full  time  superintendent  and  a  corps  of  volunteer  workers 


80  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

from  the  Atlanta  churches.  Rev.  G.  F.  Campbell,  who 
had  worked  in  the  Richmond  Mission  while  a  student 
in  the  Seminary  and  later  assisted  with  the  Louisville 
Mission,  was  placed  in  charge. 

There  are  now  two  missions  with  a  weekly  attendance 
in  the  various  departments  of  nearly  one  thousand.  The 
activities  of  the  Missions  touch  almost  every  phase  of 
the  communities'  life.  There  are  two  Sunday-schools 
taught  by  white  teachers.  There  are  two  kindergartens 
superintended  by  a  colored  girl  who  has  been  especially 
trained  for  the  work.  A  full  time  teacher  is  employed 
for  the  sewing  school,  in  which  there  are  now  three 
hundred  pupils  enrolled;  a  regular  system  of  training 
has  been  adopted  and  the  pupils  are  taught  various 
stitches,  and  are  taken  step  by  step  through  six  classes 
until  they  are  able  to  make  their  own  clothing  and  cloth- 
ing for  others.  There  are  two  day  nurseries  where  the 
children  may  be  left  while  the  mothers  are  at  work.  The 
boys  have  been  organized  into  clubs,  which  hold  weekly 
meetings,  when  the  leader  gives  practical  talks  on  rever- 
ence, honesty,  health,  cleanliness,  thrift,  patriotism,  and 
other  helpful  topics.  The  girls  are  organized  into  a  club 
for  helpful  service.  The  mission  supplies  food  and 
clothing  for  the  needy;  physicians  and  medicines  are  se- 
cured for  the  sick.  Through  this  work  hundreds  of  lives 
are  being  touched  every  day,  and  the  whole  communi- 
ties are  gradually  being  transformed. 

These  Christian  industrial  missions  represent  a  prac- 
tical effort  of  the  Church  to  improve  the  educational, 
moral  and  physical  condition  of  the  colored  people.  It 
is  possible  for  similar  missions  to  be  established  in  every 
Southern  city.  The  white  churches  will  always  provide 
the  support  if  they  are  shown  the  opportunity,  and  in 


PAYING  A  DEBT 


81 


every  congregation  consecrated  teachers  can  be  found 
for  this  Christ-like  service.  Such  work  manifests  the 
Christian  interest  of  the  white  people  and  wins  the  confi- 
dence and  good-will  of  the  Negroes.  The  gospel  is 
preached  to  thousands  who  would  not  be  reached  in  any 
other  way,  and  the  Negro  problem  is  being  solved  with 
the  spirit  and  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Conferences  for  Colored  Leaders.  There  is  held 
at  Stillman  Institute  each  year  a  series  of  conferences 
which  are  designed  to  help  the  leaders  of  the  colored  peo- 
ple in  their  Christian  life  and  better  equip  them  for  ser- 
vice in  their  churches  and  in  their  communities. 
Through  these  conferences  the  spirit  and  ideals  of  Still- 
man are  being  carried  into  many  communities  where  we 
have  no  colored  Presbyterian  churches. 

(a)  Preachers'  Conference.  This  conference  is  held  at 
the  time  of  the  meeting  of  the  Snedecor  Memorial  Synod 
and  in  connection  with  the  closing  exercises  of  Stillman 
Institute.  All  the  members  of  the  Synod  are  brought 


"ONE  OF  THE  LEAST  OF  THESE." 


82  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

together  for  ten  days  of  inspiration,  Bible  study,  and 
conference  on  their  church  problems.  A  helpful  pro- 
gram is  arranged  by  the  Stillman  faculty.  Addresses 
are  delivered  by  our  leading  white  pastors  on  Bible 
themes,  evangelism,  Home  and  Foreign  Missions,  Sun- 
day-school methods  and  church  work.  The  value 
of  this  conference  to  our  colored  pastors  cannot  be  esti- 
mated. Not  only  does  it  afford  them  an  opportunity 
for  Christian  fellowship  and  instruction  by  outstanding 
white  and  colored  leaders,  but  they  are  encouraged  to 
take  part  in  all  discussions.  The  benefit  is  seen  in  their 
increased  efficiency  as  preachers  and  in  the  larger  de- 
velopment of  their  churches.  They  are  becoming  better 
informed  on  the  work  of  the  Assembly,  and  are  made  to 
feel  that  they  are  an  integral  part  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  having  a  share  in  all  its  activities. 

(6)  Teachers'  Conference.  A  six  weeks  Summer  School 
for  teachers  of  Negro  rural  schools  is  held  in  June  and 
July.  Many  of  these  teachers  have  had  no  preparation 
for  their  work.  It  is  estimated  that  one-half  or  more  of 
the  30,000  Negro  school  teachers  and  professors  are  un- 
prepared for  their  task.  From  seventy-five  to  one  hun- 
dred teachers  from  Alabama  attend.  The  State  Board 
of  Education  recognizes  the  work  done  at  Stillman,  and 
co-operates  with  the  Institute  in  furnishing  teachers  and 
lecturers  on  rural  and  community  problems.  The  pur- 
pose of  this  school  is  to  make  better  teachers  and  fit 
them  to  be  leaders  of  their  people.  The  results  are  seen 
in  better  homes,  more  Christian  family  life,  and  higher 
ideals  of  personal  character.  The  Bible  is  given  just  as 
prominent  a  place  in  the  summer  school  as  in  the  regular 
session.  Through  this  conference  the  Institute  is  touch- 


PAYING  A  DEBT  83 

ing  thousands  of  Negro  children  and  youth  in  hundreds 
of  communities  throughout  the  State. 

(c)  Woman's  Conference.  This  conference  is  a  part 
of  the  program  of  the  Woman's  Auxiliary  for  the  Ne- 
groes, and  is  conducted  each  year  by  Mrs.  W.  C.  Wins- 
borough  Superintendent.  The  conference  is  open  to  rep- 
resentatives from  all  churches.  The  delegates  are  col- 
ored women  who  have  been  carefully  selected  and  are 
sent  by  an  Auxiliary  in  the  town  in  which  they  live.  The 
program  of  the  conference  is  arranged  to  give  the  greatest 
help  to  these  women  in  their  home  life  and  church  work. 
It  not  only  includes  Bible  study,  addresses  on  missions 
and  Christian  living,  but  competent  instructors  give 
practical  courses  in  sanitation,  nursing,  care  of  children, 
sewing,  cooking,  community  service,  and  other  every- 
day problems.  There  is  no  part  of  the  Church's  work 
for  the  Negro  people  that  has  so  far-reaching  an  in- 
fluence for  good.  These  women  are  recognized  leaders 
in  their  churches  and  communities.  This  helpful  ser- 
vice is  creating  a  spirit  of  confidence  and  trust  and  is 
helping  to  break  down  the  barrier  between  the  two  races. 
That  this  is  true  is  revealed  in  this  remark  of  one  of  the 
delegates:  "I  have  often  wondered  if  any  one  really 
felt  interested  in  or  sympathized  with  the  colored  wo- 
man. I  have  found  here  a  Christian  spirit  that  I  have 
never  found  before." 

Inter-racial  Co-operation.  In  all  its  work  for  col- 
ored people — evangelistic,  educational,  industrial — the 
Church  is  striving  for  better  men  and  women.  Booker 
T.  Washington  once  said,  "I  cannot  hold  a  man  in  the 
gutter  without  staying  in  the  gutter  myself."  The  two 
races  by  divine  providence  are  indissolubly  linked  to- 
gether. All  along  the  way,  and  at  every  turn  they  can 


84  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

help  or  hurt  one  another.  Radical  leaders  of  both  races 
can  cause  friction  through  prejudice  and  misunder- 
standing; but  the  vast  majority  of  Negroes  look  to  Chris- 
tian white  people  for  justice  and  fair  play.  Principal 
Moton  of  Tuskegee,  recently  said  that  "the  better  white 
South  was  never  more  friendly  to  the  Negro  than  today." 
This  is  only  another  way  of  saying  that  in  the  principles 
of  Jesus  is  the  solution  of  the  Negro  problem.  The 
Church,  the  possessor  of  the  gospel  of  human  brother- 
hood, is  given  the  supreme  responsibility  for  increasing 
the  spirit  of  helpfulness  between  the  races. 

"One  of  the  greatest  menaces  to  American  life  is  law- 
lessness as  expressed  in  riots,  mobs,  lynching.  This  has 
borne  most  heavily  upon  the  Negro  population  because 
it  has  been  least  protected  and  respected.  During  the 
past  thirty  years  691  white  men,  11  white  women,  2,472 
colored  men  and  50  colored  women,  have  been  lynched 
without  trial.  Nearly  three-fourths  of  the  Negro  men 
and  about  90  per  cent  of  the  white  men  were  not  even 
charged  with  any  crimes  against  women."* 

The  Southern  Inter-racial  Commission,  an  organiza- 
tion of  Southern  white  men,  has  for  its  objective  the 
cultivation  of  better  feelings  between  the  races.  All 
over  the  South  there  should  be  representative  meetings 
of  white  and  colored  leaders  to  remove  misunderstand- 
ings and  promote  inter-racial  justice  and  good-will.  The 
principles  of  the  Inter-racial  Commission  have  twice 
received  the  endorsement  of  the  General  Assembly,  and 
all  our  pastors  and  people  have  been  urged  to  bring  the 
spirit  of  Christ  to  bear  in  al  .their  dealings  with  the  col- 
ored people.  To  help  the  Negroes  is  to  help  ourselves. 
Race  distinctions  must  not  become  race  discriminations. 


•American  Survey 


PAYING  A  DEBT  85 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  What  three  obligations  constitute  our  debt  to  the  Indian? 

2.  To  what  extent  has  the  Christian  Church  failed  in  meeting 

its  obligation  to  the  Indian? 

3.  How  do  conditions  among  the  Indians  to-day  challenge  Ameri- 

can Christianity? 

4.  In  what  way  does  the  meeting  of  Indian  Presbytery  differ 

from  other  Presbyteries? 

5.  What  Indian  work  has  the  Southern  Presbyterian  Church? 

6.  What  was  Wendell  Phillip's  striking  statement? 

7.  What  statistics  prove  that  the  Negro  is  primarily  a  Southern 

responsibility? 

8.  What  two  sides  to  the  Negro  question  are  mentioned? 

9.  How  far  has  the  Church  met  the  obligation  assumed  by  the 

first  General  Assembly? 

10.  What  must  be  done  if  the  immense  task  of  Christianizing  the 

colored  race  is  to  be  accomplished? 

11.  What  four  types  of  work  for  Negroes  are  being  conducted  by 

the  Southern  Presbyterian  Church? 

12.  What  is  the  testimony  of  the  South's  leading  Negro  as  to  racial 

relations  to-day? 


CHAPTER  IV. 
THE  STRENGTH  OF  THE  HILLS 


The  main  features  of  the  mountain  problem  are  iso- 
lation, illiteracy  and  arrested  development.  Housing 
and  living  conditions  are  not  good  and  result  in  the 
wide-spread  prevalence  of  disease.  There  are  few  schools 
and  churches,  little  knowledge  of  what  goes  on  in  the 
outside  world. 

Travel  from  place  to  place  is  today  the  great  problem 
among  the  mountaineers.  This  upland  region  is  with- 
out seacoast,  inland  lake,  navigable  river,  or  canal, 
and  for  two  hundred  miles  north  and  south  there  is 
no  railroad.  One  writer  has  aptly  said:  "Of  mountain 
travel,  no  true  description  is  favorable,  and  no  favor- 
able description  can  be  true." 

This  vast  region  of  the  South  is  slowly  but  surely 
coming  to  be  recognized  as  one  of  the  interesting  fea- 
tures of  America.  Speculators  are  finding  it  to  be  a 
resourceful  field  for  investment  for  future  lumber 
camps  and  coal  mines.  Geologists  are  busy  seeking 
out  valuable  ores,  and  are  planning  for  further  research. 
Antiquarians  in  studying  the  similarities  of  the  High- 
landers of  the  South  with  the  Scotch  Highlanders  of 
two  centuries  ago,  find  unceasing  features  of  interest. 
The  hackling  of  flax,  the  spinning  wheel,  the  hand 
loom,  the  water  mill,  the  whip-saw,  the  cross-bow,  the 
flambeaux  lamp,  the  patterns  of  the  homespun  "bed 
kivers,"  the  snatches  of  the  cradle  songs,  the  "lining 
out"  of  the  native  hymns,  and  even  the  mother's 
threat  of  punishment  of  an  unruly  child,  "Be  good, 
or  Claverhouse  will  catch  you,"  all  point  back  to  an- 
cient times  in  the  land  of  their  forefathers. 

— The  Southern  Highlanders. 


IV. 

THE  STRENGTH  OF  THE  HILLS 

There  is  not  to  be  found  on  this  continent  a  people 
whose  condition  is  more  appealing  in  its  pathetic  need, 
or  who  are  more  deserving  of  the  Church's  interest  and 
help,  than  the  thousands  of  American  highlanders  living 
at  our  own  doors  in  the  Southern  Appalachian  Moun- 
tains. No  people  are  more  responsive  to  the  gospel, 
more  appreciative  of  the  school,  and  at  the  same  time 
more  capable  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  development. 

Much  has  been  written  about  their  indolence,  igno- 
rance and  poverty,  but  it  is  not  always  remembered  that 
their  condition  is  the  result  of  isolation  on  the  one  hand 
and  of  neglect  on  the  other.  Well-nigh  impassable 
mountain  ranges  have  shut  them  off  from  contact  with 
the  world  and  its  progress,  and  for  generations  the 
Church  has  neglected  them  in  the  barrenness  of  their 
life.  It  is  difficult  to  say  who  is  more  to  blame,  those 
who  have  neglected  or  those  who  have  been  neglected. 
Wherever  the  responsibility,  it  does  seem  strange  that 
conditions  should  be  as  they  are  in  the  old  sections  of 
our  country  "so  near  to  Jerusalem  of  so  many  denomi- 
nations." Possibly  that  is  the  very  reason.  Nearness 
is  always  the  severest  test  of  missionary  zeal. 

Territorial  Unity.  The  region  occupied  by  these 
people  is  the  mountain  portions  of  Kentucky,  Tennes- 
see, Georgia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Virginia 
and  West  Virginia.  It  is  a  section  about  six  hundred 
miles  long  and  about  two  hundred  miles  wide,  and  con- 
tains an  area  of  more  than  100,000  square  miles.  The 


90  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

mountain  ends  of  these  seven  states  constitute  a  great 
inland  empire,  twice  as  large  as  New  York.  It  would 
cover  all  of  New  England,  New  Jersey,  Delaware  and 
two  Marylands,  and  it  is  much  larger  than  England, 
Wales  and  Scotland  together.  This  vast  inland  empire 
contains  a  population  between  4,000,000  and  5,000,000 
people,  who  are  one  in  geographical  and  social  interests. 

The  fact  that  this  great  region  is  intersected  by  state 
lines  not  only  destroys  the  impression  of  its  vastness  and 
unity,  but  in  a  large  measure  accounts  for  the  backward- 
ness of  the  people.  It  may  be  necessary  for  every  house- 
hold to  have  its  back  yard,  but  it  is  a  great  disadvantage 
to  the  mountains  that  they  have  had  to  furnish  back- 
yards for  seven  states.  The  fact  is  that  the  mountain 
sections  have  largely  been  cut  off  from  participation  in 
the  affairs  of  the  State  in  which  they  are  a  part.  Con- 
sequently they  have  not  developed  along  with  the  rest 
of  the  country. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  in  1861  because  of  this 
geographical  oneness,  and  following  the  example  of  West 
Virginia  which  seceded  from  Virginia,  it  was  'seriously 
proposed  to  form  the  mountain  ends  of  these  states  into 
an  independent  commonwealth,  to  be  known  as  the  State 
of  Appalachia.  If  this  had  been  done,  it  would  have 
been  the  means  of  taking  millions  of  the  best  people  of 
the  nation  out  of  the  back  yard  and  putting  them  in  the 
way  of  development  and  progress. 

Synod  of  Appalachia.  It  is  the  territorial  unity 
and  similarity  of  interest  of  the  mountain  Presbyteries 
that  lie  back  of  the  great  mountain  Synod  of  Appalachia. 
This  great  Home  Mission  Synod  embraces  almost  the 
same  territory  as  the  proposed  State  of  Appalachia. 
The  mountain  sections  of  the  Church,  just  as  in  the  case 


92  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

of  the  states,  received  scant  attention  from  the  Synods  to 
which  they  belonged.  There  was  a  disposition  to  look 
upon  the  mountain  Presbyteries  as  dependent  mission- 
ary territory,  rather  than  an  integral  part  of  the  Synod. 
They  had  little  voice  in  the  councils  of  the  Church.  The 
formation  of  these  Presbyteries,  with  their  common  in- 
terests and  common  problems,  into  a  separate  Synod  has 
lifted  the  mountain  sections  of  the  Church  out  of  the 
back  yard  and  has  given  them  a  Church-wide  promi- 
nence. The  churches  of  the  mountain  Presbyteries 
having  the  same  educational  and  religious  needs  are  able 
to  develop  their  own  resources,  train  their  own  leaders, 
build  their  own  educational  institutions  and  colleges, 
and  carry  out  the  program  of  service  best  adapted  to 
their  needs. 

Origin  of  the  Mountaineer.  They  are  the  de- 
scendants of  the  best  people  who  came  to  America  in 
the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries.  They  came 
from  the  same  Scotch-Irish  Presbyterians  that  settled 
the  valleys  and  the  lowlands  and  who  pressed  into  the 
mountains  and  settled  there.  At  first,  they  were  just 
as  cultured  and  as  well-to-do  as  any  of  the  people  of  the 
valleys  or  seaboard,  from  among  whom  they  moved,  and 
at  the  same  time  more  resolute  and  virile  and  daring. 
They  have  not  always  been  illiterate.  Dr.  S.  T.  Wilson 
says  that:  "In  1776,  out  of  one  hundred  and  ten  pio- 
neers of  the  Washington  District  in  Tennessee  who  signed 
a  petition  to  be  annexed  to  North  Carolina  only  two 
signed  by  mark.  In  1780,  two  hundred  and  fifty-six 
pioneers  of  Cumberland  signed  the  articles  of  agreement 
and  only  one  signed  by  mark." 

They  are  a  patriotic  and  liberty-loving  people.  Rev. 
Jol:n  E.  White,  in  "The  Home  Mission  Task,"  says: 


THE  STRENGTH  OF  THE  HILLS  93 

"There  are  three  claimants  to  priority  for  the  Declar- 
ation of  Independence.  The  mountaineers  of  East  Ten- 
nessee and  Southwest  Virginia  have  their  declaration 
of  Abingdon  alongside  the  claims  of  Mecklenburg  and 
Philadelphia.  They  contributed  to  the  struggle  for  in- 
dependence the  twofold  service  of  holding  back  the 
hordes  of  Indians  incited  by  British  agents  rushing  down 
upon  the  plains,  and  at  the  same  time  they  sent  flying 
columns  to  the  assistance  of  the  embattled  colonists. 
No  fact  is  better  established  in  history  than  the  fact  that 
the  battle  of  King's  Mountain  was  the  turning  point  of 
the  American  Revolution.  'That  glorious  victory,'  said 
Jefferson,  'was  the  glorious  annunciation  of  that  turn 
in  the  tide  of  success  which  terminated  the  Revolution- 
ary War  with  the  seal  of  independence.'  It  was  a  bat- 
tle mainly  of  mountaineers,  under  Shelby  and  Sevier, 
who  turned  immediately  back  again  to  drive  the  Indians 
beyond  the  Blue  Ridge.  They  represented  probably 
the  bravest  and  most  adventurous  elements  in  the  im- 
migration which  settled  the  Colonies.  They  simply 
went  a  little  further  than  their  brothers  into  the  perils 
of  the  new  land." 

In  all  the  wars  in  which  the  nation  has  been  engaged 
the  southern  highlanders  have  responded  with  a  larger 
percentage  of  their  population  than  any  other  part  of 
the  United  States.  East  Tennessee  is  said  to  have  given 
a  larger  percentage  of  its  adult  male  population  to  the 
Union  Army  during  the  Civil  War  than  any  other  sec- 
tion of  the  entire  country. 

Carter  County,  Tennessee,  sent  a  larger  percentage 
of  its  population  to  the  Cuban  War  than  any  other  part 
of  the  entire  nation.  In  the  World  War,  the  mountains 
of  the  South  sent  a  stream  of  volunteers  into  the  army, 
leading  all  other  sections  of  the  country.  Breathitt 
County,  Kentucky,  headed  the  list  by  sending  twice 
as  many  men  in  proportion  to  its  population  as  any 


94  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

county  in  the  United  States.  Cowardice  or  a  want  of 
patriotism  can  never  be  laid  to  the  charge  of  the  moun- 
tain people. 

Two  Classes  of  Mountaineers.  It  would  not  be 
correct  to  consider  all  the  people  residing  in  the  moun- 
tains as  objects  of  missionary  effort.  A  well-informed 
student  of  the  mountain  people,  who  is  himself  a  moun- 
taineer, has  pointed  out  the  fact  that  "what  may  be  true 
of  one  mountaineer,  or  of  one  mountain  home,  or  of  one 
mountain  community,  is  not  necessarily  true  of  all 
mountaineers,  homes  and  communities.  There  are  to 
be  found  in  the  mountains,  as  everywhere  else,  those 
social  and  moral  classifications  which  people  naturally 
fall  into  according  to  their  differences  of  birth,  breeding 
and  opportunity.  .  .  .  There  are  the  lines  of  moral, 
mental  and  material  cleavage  as  sharply  drawn  in  the 
mountains  as  anywhere  else  in  this  democratic  country." 

The  population  of  this  vast  mountain  region  is  divided 
into  two  distinct  classes,  as  far  removed  in  character 
and  environment  as  it  is  possible  for  people  to  be.  First, 
there  are  those  who  live  in  the  fertile  valleys  along  the 
rivers  and  the  railways,  with  the  very  best  religious  and 
educational  advantages,  and  who  are  equal  in  intelli- 
gence and  refinement  to  any  people  in  America.  Such 
cities  as  Chattanooga,  Knoxville,  Johnson  City,  Bristol, 
and  Asheville,  with  their  splendid  churches,  colleges  and 
universities,  are  the  achievements  of  mountaineers  of 
this  class. 

But  the  people  with  whom  the  missionary  has  to  do, 
and  with  whom  this  study  is  concerned,  do  not  live  in 
these  favored  valleys,  but  far  back  from  the  main  lines 
of  travel  in  small  clearings  by  the  small  water  courses, 
almost  entirely  removed  from  the  outside  world,  with 


THE  STRENGTH  OF  THE  HILLS 


95 


few  advantages  for  learning  and  few  opportunities  for 
improvement.  The  extreme  poor  live  "back  of  beyond," 
beyond  the  towering  mountains,  locked  in  narrow  coves, 
without  teachers,  without  physicians,  without  comforts 
and  conveniences,  and  without  any  contact  with  outside 
civilization. 

Fruits  of  Isolation.  Why  should  a  people  with  such 
ancestry  and  such  acknowledged  character  and  ability 
be  objects  of  missionary  service?  There  is  one  answer— 
they  are  the  product  of  their  environment.  Mountains 
make  mountaineers.  Isolation  fosters  ignorance.  For 
generations  they  have  lived  to  themselves.  When  the 
tide  of  progress  set  in  from  the  lowlands  and  the  countries 
across  the  sea,  it  flowed  North  and  South,  and  the  re- 
mote mountain  communities,  unpierced  by  the  lines  of 
travel  and  commerce,  became  eddies  in  the  on-going 
stream.  In  the  march  of  progress  this  section  was 
passed  by  and  forgotten,  and  for  ages  was  lost  to  the 
busy  world.  Poverty  of  the  soil  resulted  in  poverty  of 


GROUP  OF  MOUNTAIN  CHILDREN 


96  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

the  people.  This  in  turn  deprived  them  of  the  advan- 
tages of  church  and  school,  and  the  uplifting  conserving 
influences  of  education  and  the  Christian  faith. 

Dr.  J.  E.  White,  in  "The  Home  Mission  Task,"  cites 
the  Huguenots,  who  were  driven  in  1572  into  the  Vosges 
Mountains,  as  an  illustration  of  the  deteriorating  effect 
of  isolation  upon  a  noble  people: 

"There  in  the  little  district  of  Steinthal  a  community 
of  them  lived  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  without 
contact  of  any  sort  with  the  outer  world.  The  teachers 
and  preachers  who  came  with  them  died.  Gradually 
it  came  to  pass  that  they  had  no  teachers  and  preachers. 
Schools  worthy  of  the  name,  churches,  family  altars,  the 
influence  of  religious  sentiment  and  life,  were  all  depre- 
ciated. When  John  Frederick  Oberlin,  the  Strasburg 
professor  and  missionary  hero,  found  them  they  were 
in  a  pitiable  condition.  Their  numbers  had  increased, 
but  the  type  of  the  brave  Huguenot  who  was  their  an- 
cestor was  unrecognizable  in  them.  This  is  an  extreme 
illustration  of  what  isolation  carried  to  its  logical  con- 
clusion will  work  in  human  character." 

While  it  is  true  that  the  people  of  the  southern  moun- 
tains were  never  entirely  isolated,  many  of  them  have 
lived  apart  in  their  own  secluded  communities,  separated 
from  the  influence  of  the  progressive  movements  of  an 
advancing  civilization.  Long  distances  and  impassable 
roads  discouraged  frequent  communication  and  friendly 
intercourse  with  other  communities.  The  effect  of  these 
conditions  operating  from  generation  to  generation  re- 
sulted in  the  general  ignorance  and  deterioration  of  the 
people.  Thus  a  distinct  class  was  formed  and  a  race 
naturally  mentally  strong  and  with  many  noble  traits 
of  character  became  poorer  and  more  ignorant  and 
more  exclusive. 


THE  STRENGTH  OF  THE  HILLS  97 

The  Present  Conditions.  While  the  character  of 
the  homes  vary  according  to  the  circumstances  of  the 
owner,  as  a  rule  the  houses  in  the  coves  and  recesses  of 
the  mountains  are  poor  and  bare — a  log  cabin  of  one  or 
two  rooms,  windowless  or  having  rude  wooden  shutters, 
with  an  outside  chimney  built  of  stone  from  the  sides  of 
the  mountain  or  nearby  brooks.  The  furniture  is  a 
rough  table,  a  few  chairs  and  a  shuck  mattress.  In 
many  sections  cook  stoves,  or  other  labor-saving  devices 
are  unknown.  In  these  cramped  quarters  live  the  entire 
family.  Yet  withal  they  are  unusually  hospitable.  A 
stranger  is  welcomed  and  is  given  the  best  they  have. 
The  men  as  a  class  love  their  families,  and  divorces 
among  them  are  unknown.  The  life  of  the  woman  is 
hard,  and  they  grow  prematurely  old,  through  toil  and 
drudgery.  Dr.  Guerrant  says: 

"  It  is  not  hard  to  persuade  them  that  God  has  a  better 
country  for  them.  It  is  a  continual  struggle  for  bread. 
The  steep  mountain  sides  are  soon  worn  to  the  rock,  and 
it  is  a  battle  with  ground  hogs  and  ground  squirrels  from 
the  time  the  seed  is  planted  to  the  day  the  crop  is  gath- 
ered." 

The  schools  are  like  the  homes.  The  State  has  made 
little  or  no  provision  for  public  schools.  Where  they  have 
them  they  are  open  only  for  a  few  months,  and  are 
taught  by  incompetent  teachers.  In  many  cases  they 
can  do  little  more  than  read  and  write.  One  little  girl 
before  entering  a  mission  school  said  she  had  attended 
five  schools,  and  she  had  never  learned  her  letters. 
Another  said«she  had  gone  to  three  schools,  and  added, 
"I  never  larned  nuthin'  at  ary  one  of  them." 

The  churches  reflect  the  conditions  of  the  home  and 
the  school.  Yet  the  mountain  people  are  naturally  re- 


98  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

ligious.  It  is  said  that  there  is  not  an  atheist  or  an  infi- 
del among  them.  For  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  one 
generation  has  taught  the  succeeding  one  to  believe  in 
one  true  God  and  to  have  faith  in  the  Bible.  During 
the  early  days  the  ministers  who  labored  among  them 
laid  the  foundation  of  their  faith  in  God  and  the  Scrip- 
tures. They  established  log  Churches  and  schoolhouses, 
and  kept  the  fire  burning  on  many  a  family  altar;  but 
with  the  later  generations,  because  of  their  lack  of  an 
educated  ministry  and  the  consequent  ignorance,  many 
corrupt  ideas  have  entered  their  belief.  The  sermons 
they  most  enjoy  are  lengthy  discussions  of  doctrinal 
subjects.  They  will  walk  for  miles  for  the  privilege  of 
hearing  a  sermon,  and  will  sit  for  hours  on  the  rudest 
benches.  An  educated  missionary  once  preached,  by 
invitation,  in  one  of  the  log  churches.  His  sermon  was 
thirty  minutes  long.  At  the  close,  a  native  preacher 
asked:  "Be  yer  edicated?"  "Yes/'  said  the  missionary, 
"I  am  educated."  "Fer  how  long  did  yer  go  ter  school?" 
asked  the  preacher.  "Well,"  answered  the  missionary, 
"I  went  four  years  to  college  and  three  years  to  the  the- 
ological seminary."  Responded  the  preacher,  "Yer 
don't  tell!  An,  after  all  that  schoolin',  ye  kin  preach 
but  half  an  hour.  Why,  any  of  us  home  preachers  kin 
preach  two  hours  without  goin'  ter  school  at  all." 

They  are  intensely  Protestant  as  were  their  ancestors. 
Catholicism  can  make  no  headway  among  these  descend- 
ants of  those  who  were  taught  the  creed  of  Knox  and 
Calvin.  But  Mormonism  has  found  its  way  into  the 
mountains,  and  for  years  its  missionaries  have  been 
searching  the  remote  recesses  for  followers  of  its  faith. 
A  great  spiritual  hunger  is  characteristic  of  them  all, 
and  a  desire  to  learn  and  rise.  "It  is  too  late  for  me," 


THE  STRENGTH  OF  THE  HILLS  99 

was  the  pathetic  cry  of  an  old  man,  "but  I  want  you  to 
learn  my  boys  and  girls." 
Discoverer  of  the  Mountains.     It  was  Dr.  E.  O. 

Guerrant  who  directed  the  attention  of  the  Church  to 
this  great  mission  field  and  the  possibility  of  winning  a 
great  people  for  Christ  and  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Dr. 
W.  W.  Moore,  President  of  the  Union  Theological  Semi- 
nary, Richmond,  Virginia,  in  the  introduction  to  "The 
Galax  Gatherers,"  says: 

"As  Sir  Walter  Scott  made  the  Highlands  of  Scotland 
known  to  the  world  and  turned  an  endless  stream  of 
tourists  through  those  romantic  regions,  so  Dr.  Guer- 
rant has  helped  to  give  to  the  world  a  true  knowledge 
of  this  vastly  greater  and  wilder  Appalachian  region  with 
its  four  million  of  untutored  and  un-Christianized  peo- 
ple, and  has  done  more  than  any  living  man  to  turn  a 
saving  stream  of  evangelists  and  teachers  into  its  remote 
and  needy  recesses.  He  has  been  in  turn  soldier,  doctor, 
evangelist — these  three — but  the  greatest  of  these  is 
evangelist.  His  heart  has  responded  to  the  sore  need 
of  this  vast  region,  as  large  as  the  German  Empire,  and 
practically  without  churches,  Sabbath-schools,  or  qual- 
ified teachers.  He  has  recognized  clearly  that  this  home 
mission  work  is  the  paramount  obligation  resting  upon 

our  people Notwithstanding  all  that  has  been 

done,  the  field  is  yet  almost  untouched;  there  are  many 
thousands  yet  unreached;  and  as  Dr.  Guerrant  says:  'the 
question  is  not  whether  they  can  be  saved  without  the 
gospel,  but  whether  we  can  be  saved  if  we  do  not  give 
it  to  them." 

Organized  Mission  Effort.  The  story  of  Mountain 
Missions  of  the  Southern  Presbyterian  Church  is  largely 
the  story  of  Dr.  E.  O.  Guerrant.  It  was  to  meet  the 
educational  and  religious  needs  of  these  millions  lost  in 
the  mountains,  passed  by  and  forgotten  by  the  Church, 


100  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

that  the  Society  of  the  Soul  Winners  was  organized. 
The  following  account  of  the  beginning  of  this  work  has 
been  given  by  Dr.  Frank  Talmadge: 

"Many  years  ago  a  soldier  in  Morgan's  Confederate 
Army  rode  over  the  mountains  of  the  South.  There 
for  the  first  time  he  came  in  touch  with  the  misery  and 
ignorance  and  nobility  of  the  mighty  Highlanders.  After 
the  war  was  closed  this  brave  soldier  of  war  entered  a 
theological  seminary  and  became  a  soldier  of  the  Cross. 
Called  to  one  of  the  chief  pulpits  of  Louisville,  he  felt 
that  barrack  duty  was  not  the  place  of  honor.  He  longed 
for  the  picket  line.  He  wanted  to  fight  at  the  front,  as 
he  did  in  Morgan's  brigade.  Called  to  be  a  Synodical 
missionary,  at  once  he  accepted  the  appointment. 

"As  the  Synodical  missionary  his  thoughts  immediate- 
ly turned  to  the  place  of  the  greatest  want  and  wretched- 
ness, to  the  Highlanders  of  the  mountains.  He  orga- 
nized church  after  church.  He  sent  missionary  after 
missionary  into  the  hills.  Then  the  Synod  met  and 
began  to  count  its  money.  Little  money  was  there. 
Then  the  officers  of  that  Synod  ordered  this  missionary 
to  retrench  and  not  to  build  so  many  churches  and 
schools,  as  they  could  not  afford  to  pay  for  them.  Then 
a  wonderful  thing  happened;  wonderful  because  it  was 
so  simple  in  a  man  of  great  faith. 

"Dr.  Guerrant  resigned  as  the  Synodical  missionary. 
Before  the  Synod  he  uttered  these  words:  'Brethren,  if 
you  cannot  afford  to  pay  for  the  schools  and  churches 
and  the  missionaries  for  the  poor  Highlanders,  God  can 
pay  for  them.'  Dr.  Guerrant  went  back  to  his  home  in 
Wilmore,  Kentucky.  There  he  knelt  and  asked  God 
to  help.  The  money  commenced  to  pour  in.  Church  after 
church  has  been  established.  School  after  school  has 
been  built.  Missionary  after  missionary  has  been  sent 
to  these  fields.  The  orphan  children  were  gathered  into 
a  home.  Though  wonders  have  been  accomplished  by 
this  man  of  prayer,  yet  only  the  outer  edge  of  the  har- 
vest has  been_ gathered." 


THE  STRENGTH  OF  THE  HILLS  101 

Presbyterian  Work.  In  1911,  Dr.  Guerrant,  on  ac- 
count of  advancing  age,  transferred  to  the  General  As- 
sembly the  work  of  the  Soul  Winners'  Society,  consist- 
ing of  fifty  missionaries  and  eighteen  mission  centers. 
The  Assembly  accepted  the  responsibility,  and  made  the 
Mountain  Missions  a  department  of  the  work  of  the 
Executive  Committee  of  Home  Missions.  Dr.  Guerrant 
continued  his  interest  and  help  in  the  work  until  his 
death.  Under  the  care  of  the  Home  Mission  Commit- 
tee the  work  has  been  greatly  enlarged,  and  has  become 
in  many  respects  the  most  fruitful  of  any  department 
of  the  Church's  missionary  operations. 

There  are  in  the  bounds  of  the  Assembly  about  fifty 
mountain  mission  schools  under  the  control  of  the  Pres- 
bytery, Synod  and  Assembly.  Under  the  immediate 
supervision  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  Home  Mis- 
sions there  are  (Report  1921)  fifteen  schools  and  thirty 
mission  centers,  from  which  are  being  reached  forty- 
seven  Sunday-schools  and  seventy-seven  out  stations 
and  preaching  points.  The  Committee  employs  in  the 
Mountain  Department  sixteen  ministers,  nine  laymen, 
and  seventy-three  women  missionaries  and  teachers. 
Financial  assistance  is  also  given  to  the  mountain  work 
of  the  Presbyteries  and  Synods.  These  schools  vary 
one  from  another  in  size,  in  emphasis  and  in  course  of 
study,  but  never  in  purpose,  for  the  development  of 
Christian  character  and  Christian  leadership  is  the  aim 
of  all. 

People  of  the  Ozarks.  In  the  Ozark  Mountains,  cov- 
ering large  portions  of  Missouri  and  Arkansas,  are  about 
one  million  of  the  same  people,  living  under  the  same  con- 
ditions, having  the  same  problems,  brought  about  by 
the  same  causes  as  in  the  mountains  of  the  East.  In  the 


102  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

rush  to  settle  the  great  plains  and  prairies  of  the  West, 
the  Ozarks  were  passed  by  as  were  the  Alleghanies,  the 
Blue  Ridge  and  the  Cumberlands.  Harold  Bell  Wright 
has  discovered  these  people  and  introduced  them  to  the 
nation  in  "The  Shepherd  of  the  Hills,"  and  other  stories 
of  this  region,  as  John  Fox,  Jr.,  has  acquainted  us  with 
the  people  of  the  mountains  of  Kentucky. 

At  Hollister,  the  Synod  of  Missouri  has  the  School  of 
the  Ozarks.  This  splendid  institution  is  the  pride  of 
the  Synod,  and  is  doing  a  remarkable  work  for  the  boys 
and  girls  in  that  great  mountain  region.  In  Arkansas 
the  Assembly's  Committee,  in  co-operation  with  the 
Synod,  has  two  mountain  mission  schools,  one  at  Moun- 
taincrest,  and  the  other  at  Womble.  These  two  new 
enterprises  represent  the  beginning  of  the  Assembly's 
program  of  education  in  the  Ozarks. 

Combating  Illiteracy.  The  first  great  need  of  these 
people  is  education.  The  school  must  blaze  the  way 
and  create  the  necessity  for  a  better  religious  and  com- 
munity life.  The  mountain  people  cannot  be  elevated 
from  without;  but  the  improvement  must  come  from 
within.  The  State  schools  are  not  meeting  the  educa- 
tional needs  of  the  people,  and  the  Church  through  its 
system  of  mission  schools  is  endeavoring  to  help  solve 
the  problem  of  illiteracy,  not  by  supplanting,  but  by 
supplementing  the  work  of  the  public  school.  The 
mountain  people  want  the  church  school,  and  will  give 
freely  of  their  limited  means  towards  its  support.  These 
schools  in  themselves  cannot  touch  the  fringe  of  the  need. 
One  boy  or  one  girl  from  a  family  may  be  privileged  to 
attend,  but  what  of  the  eight  or  ten  brothers  and  sisters 
shut  off  at  home  without  any  opportunity?  These  are 
the  Church's  chief  concern,  and  it  is  the  desire  to  help 


THE  STRENGTH  OF  THE  'HILLS  103 

them  that  lies  back  of  its  mission  school  effort.  By 
training  Christian  leaders  and  Christian  teachers,  the 
Church  is  making  it  possible  for  a  greater  number  to 
receive  an  education,  many  of  whom  otherwise  would 
have  no  chance  to  do  so. 

The  story  of  one  school  is  the  story  of  all.  In  almost 
every  instance  they  are  crowded  to  overflowing,  and  their 
usefulness  is  limited  only  by  their  lack  of  room.  The 
outstanding,  insistent  appeal  of  every  mountain  teacher 
is  for  larger  buildings  and  better  equipment  to  care  for 
the  army  of  boys  and  girls  seeking  admission.  The  chil- 
dren in  the  city  and  other  more  favored  communities 
may  regard  it  as  a  hardship  to  go  to  school  and  look  upon 
it  as  a  punishment,  but  the  mountain  children  are  so 
eager  for  an  education  that  many  of  them  will  make  any 
sacrifice  to  get  it.  Two  small  girls  walked  thirty-five 
miles  to  enter  a  mission  school,  and  when  the  session 
closed  they  walked  back  home.  Two  others  drove  one 


FOR  SUCH  AS  THESE 


104  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

hundred  and  twenty  miles  across  the  intervening  moun. 
tains  in  a  covered  wagon,  and  were  four  days  on  the  road- 
Another  came  twenty  miles  leading  a  pet  cow  with  which 
to  help  pay  her  expenses. 

It  is  the  aim  of  these  mission  schools  to  give  each  boy 
and  girl  the  best  possible  instruction  in  the  class  room, 
teach  them  lessons  in  health,  sanitation  and  home-mak- 
ing, and  lead  them  to  a  saving  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ. 
The  Bible  is  a  text-book  in  every-  school,  and  is  taught 
in  each  grade.  When  the  students  have  finished  in  the 
school  they  are  sent  back  to  their  homes  in  the  remote 
creeks  and  coves  to  help  their  families  and  communities 
to  higher  and  better  things.  This  is  the  work  that  is 
being  done  by  the  Church  in  those  splendid  mountain 
mission  institutions  at  Stuart  Robinson,  Highland  and 
Beechwood,  in  Kentucky;  Grundy  and  Blue  Ridge,  in 
Virginia;  Madison,  in  West  Virginia;  Banner  Elk  and 
Plumtree,  in  North  Carolina;  The  Ozarks,  in  Missouri; 
Mountaincrest  and  Womble,  in  Arkansas;  Nacoochee,  in 
Georgia;  and  at  scores  of  smaller  schools  throughout 
the  mountain  regions. 

There  is  no  part  of  the  Church's  missionary  operations 
that  pays  larger  dividends  in  Christian  character  and 
potential  leadership  than  the  consecrated  service  of 
these  Mountain  Mission  teachers.  Through  their  ef- 
forts the  younger  generation  is  learning  Christ's  new 
commandment,  "Love  one  another."  The  old  spirit 
of  hatred  and  revenge  that  has  so  long  prevailed  among 
families  and  clans  is  dying  out  except  in  districts  that 
have  not  been  reached  by  prohibition  and  the  Christian 
school. 

Sunday-school  and  Community  Workers.  In 
addition  to  the  teachers  in  the  day  and  high  schools,  all 


THE  STRENGTH  OF  THE  HILLS  105 

of  whom  teach  in  the  neighborhood  Sunday-schools  and 
visit  in  the  homes  of  the  people,  the  Committee  employs 
a  number  of  community  workers  who  give  their  entire 
time  to  Sunday-school  and  other  religious  and  commun- 
ity service.  Sunday-schools  are  held  in  the  churches, 
school  houses  and  the  teachers'  homes,  where  the  chil- 
dren are  gathered,  or  as  many  as  can  find  room.  Every 
teacher's  home  is  a  community  center.  Through  the 
children  the  workers  reach  the  parents.  There  is  scarce- 
ly an  hour  in  the  day,  and  frequently  in  the  night,  that 
there  is  not  some  call  for  the  service  of  the  missionary. 
Every  community  worker  must  be  ready  for  any  emer- 
gency, whether  it  is  sickness  in  a  family,  a  funeral,  or  a 
wedding.  In  the  remote  regions  "back  of  beyond," 
where  doctors  and  nurses  are  practically  unknown,  she 
must  be  ready  to  prescribe  for  all  ailments  of  man  or 
beast,  and  must  be  able  to  render  "last  aid"  as  well  as 
"first  aid."  Every  mountain  missionary  should  have  a 
stock  of  home  remedies,  and  an  unusual  supply  of  com- 
mon sense,  to  work  among  a  people  who  have  so  little 
knowledge  of  sanitation,  or  the  simplest  treatment  in 
the  case  of  sickness. 

Epidemics  always  bring  terror  to  the  hearts  of  the 
mountain  workers.  The  people  are  so  helpless  and  so 
dependent.  One  woman  worker,  in  the  absence  of  any 
physician  and  nurse,  visited  one  hundred  and  ninety- 
eight  cases  of  influenza.  She  served  day  and  night  and 
administered  the  approved  remedies  of  which  she  had 
heard  and  which  alone  were  available.  Her  good  com- 
mon sense  and  tireless  fidelity  were  blessed  to  such  a 
degree  that  but  one  patient  died.  Such  service  has  its 
reward  in  the  love  and  confidence  of  the  people.  Many 


106  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

out  of  their  poverty  try  to  show  their  gratitude  in  some 
kindness  done. 

One  missionary  heard  of  a  family  in  great  need.  She 
walked  three  miles,  through  mud  and  in  the  rain,  to  a 
log  cabin  on  the  side  of  the  hill.  There  was  only  one  bed- 
room. In  that  room  was  the  mother  ill  with  influenza 
and  pneumonia,  and  the  father  and  four  children  were 
all  in  bed.  The  missionary  cared  for  the  entire  family, 
day  and  night,  until  her  strength  failed  and  she  was 
obliged  to  return  to  the  mission  to  rest.  In  a  short  time 
she  returned  to  her  nursing.  When  all  were  well  on  the 
road  to  recovery,  she  went  elsewhere  to  administer  to 
others.  The  man  of  the  house  did  not  say  "thank  you" 
when  she  left.  A  week  later,  hearing  that  the  mission- 
ary was  sick,  the  man,  still  weak  from  his  recent  illness, 
walked  three  miles  through  snow  and  over  frozen  streams 
to  bring  a  ham  and  two  chickens  to  her.  This  was  his 
expression  of  gratitude  to  one  who  had  been  a  friend  in 
time  of  need. 

Free  Medical  Clinics.  Following  the  example  of 
Dr.  E.  O.  Guerrant,  who  frequently  took  physicians 
and  surgeons  to  various  places  in  the  mountains  for 
the  benefit  of  those  without  physicians  and  hospitals 
and  who  were  unable  to  procure  proper  medical  as- 
sistance, his  son,  Dr.  E.  P.  Guerrant,  a  competent 
physician  and  surgeon,  accompanied  by  specialists  and 
nurses  who  give  without  charge  their  time  and  service, 
holds  each  year  free  medical  clinics  at  three  of  our  largest 
schools,  and  devotes  several  days  to  treating  mountain 
children  and  others  suffering  from  chronic  diseases.  At 
each  of  these  clinics  from  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  four 
hundred  patients  are  examined.  The  announcement 
that  a  clinic  is  to  be  held  is  carried  far  and  wide.  There 


THE  STRENGTH  OF  THE  HILLS  107 

is  a  stream  of  sick  and  suffering  humanity  from  twenty- 
five  to  thirty-five  miles  back  in  the  mountains  to  receive 
treatment.  It  is  like  in  the  days  when  Christ  was  on 
earth,  when  "they  brought  unto  Him  all  the  sick  people 
and  those  that  were  taken  with  divers  diseases."  At  one 
clinic  a  primitive  Baptist  preacher  came  twenty-five 
miles  from  back  in  the  mountains  with  his  wife  and  five 
children.  Tonsils  were  removed  from  four  of  the  chil- 
dren and  adenoids  from  one. 

Mountain  Hospitals.  Hospitals  are  one  of  the  great 
needs  of  the  Church's  Mountain  Mission  work,  for  no 
people  in  this  great  country  of  ours  are  more  destitute 
of  medical  advantages.  At  Lees-McRae  Institute,  Ban- 
ner Elk,  North  Carolina,  there  is  a  splendidly  equipped 
hospital,  with  competent  nurses  and  a  skilled  physician 
in  charge.  In  this  mission  hospital  more  than  three 
hundred  patients  have  been  treated,  from  one  to  six 
weeks,  and  most  of  them  for  operations.  Hundreds  of 
others  have  been  treated  without  having  to  remain.  It 
is  more  than  a  hospital.  It  is  both  a  dispensary  and  a 
school.  Here  the  students  in  the  Institute  are  instructed 
in  things  pertaining  to  their  own  health  and  safety  and 
the  care  of  the  sick  room.  Twenty-five  trained  nurses 
have  gone  out  from  this  school. 

At  Highland  School,  Guerrant,  Kentucky,  the  Com- 
mittee has  a  hospital  with  a  trained  nurse  in  charge,  but 
there  is  no  resident  physician  to  care  for  the  teachers 
and  the  pupils  or  minister  to  the  sick  in  the  community. 
Hospital  facilities  must  be  provided  at  Stuart  Robinson 
and  other  centers  in  this  great  and  needy  field.  Where 
could  a  Christian  physician,  wishing  to  minister  to  the 
relief  of  suffering  humanity,  find  a  more  open  field  or 
more  inviting  opportunity? 


108  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

Evangelistic  Effort.  Every  mountain  school,  com- 
munity center  and  hospital  is  intended  to  be  an  evange- 
listic agency.  Every  minister,  teacher,  and  nurse  is 
striving  to  make  Christ  known  in  His  saving  power  to 
the  people  among  whom  they  labor.  The  Mountain 
Mission  Sunday-schools  supported  by  the  Executive 
Committee  have  an  enrollment  of  4,000;  and  the  workers 
receive  into  the  Church  an  average  of  600  per  year  upon 
profession  of  their  faith.  In  one  mountain  field  in  Vir- 
ginia, one  missionary  in  seven  years  has  built  six 
churches.  These  are  in  a  county  where  previously 
there  was  not  a  Presbyterian  church.  The  evangelistic 
opportunity  in  the  mountain  Presbyteries  is  practically 
unlimited.  Mothers  often  come  to  the  workers  from 
communities  ten  to  fifteen  miles  distant,  asking  that  a 
Sunday-school  be  started  for  them,  saying:  "We  don't 
know  nuthin'  and  we  want  our  children  to  larn." 

Consecration  of  Missionaries.  Without  a  single 
exception  the  mountain  missionaries  are  willing  to  spend 
and  be  spent  in  these  hard  and  difficult  fields.  Many 
have  declined  larger  salaries  in  other  work,  that  they 
might  serve  these  needy  people. 

Few  of  the  homes  in  which  these  missionaries  live  have 
even  the  suggestion  of  comforts  or  conveniences.  The 
houses  in  many  instances  were  built  of  green  lumber 
which,  when  dried,  left  great  cracks  through  which  the 
winter  winds  drive  the  rain  and  snow,  in  spite  of  the 
many  pastings  of  newspapers  which  were  sent  in  mis- 
sionary barrels.  One  worker  tells  how  she  pulled  the 
bedspread  over  her  head  when  it  snowed  and  in  the  morn- 
ing before  rising  she  shook  the  snow  off  her  bed.  Is  it 
any  wonder  that  this  same  woman  now  walks  on  crutches 
much  of  the  time  because  of  rheumatism?  Often  water 


THE  STRENGTH  OF  THE  HILLS  109 

is  carried  from  a  distant  neighbor's  house,  or  from  a 
spring  at  the  foot  of  the  hill.  The  coal  has  to  be  carried 
in  and  the  kindling  split  because  there  is  no  man  on  the 
place.  In  addition  to  her  duties  as  Christian  worker 
and  servant  of  the  community,  she  does  all  the  heavy 
household  work.  One  worker  has  had  to  move  six  times 
in  three  years,  and  is  now  living  in  a  donated  house  with 
the  possibility  of  having  to  vacate  at  any  time.  It  is 
located  on  the  side  of  a  hill,  difficult  of  approach,  with 
no  conveniences,  and  could  properly  be  designated  as  a 
"woman-killer."  Oftentimes  a  missionary  lives  alone, 
with  never  a  congenial  friend  from  the  outside  world  with 
whom  to  talk.  Even  the  mail  is  irregular  in  its  arrival. 
The  post-office  may  be  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  or 
it  may  be  three  miles  away,  or  it  may  be  seven  or  ten 
miles.  As  of  Paul  it  can  be  said  of  them,  "In  labors 
more  abundant,"  "in  weariness  and  painfulness,  in 
watchings  often,  in  hunger  and  thirst,  in  fastings  often." 
If  there  is  any  special  honor  for  the  soldiers  who  can  go 
out  farthest,  stand  longest,  fight  bravest  in  the  hard 
places  of  the  battle,  it  should  go  to  the  Home  missionary. 
The  Church  should  see  to  it  that  these  heroic  men  and 
women  have  at  least  the  ordinary  comforts  of  home 
where  they  can  rest  after  a  day  in  which  their  strength 
has  been  given  in  sacrificial  service. 

Fruits  of  Mountain  Missions.  Rev.  E.  V.  Tad- 
rock,  principal  of  the  Stuart  Robinson  School,  Blackey, 
Kentucky,  says: 

"Instances  of  the  fruitfulness  of  mountain  missions 
in  the  state  where  I  labor,  can  be  cited  that  are  so  numer- 
ous and  striking  as  to  be  conclusive.  I  recently  spoke 
in  one  of  our  fields  to  a  mountain  congregation  of  more 
than  two  hundred.  The  pastor,  himself  a  mountain 


110  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

man,  was  the  product  of  the  mission  church  and  school. 
Within  six  months  he  has  received  into  the  membership 
upward  of  one  hundred  mountain  people,  and  with  the 
help  of  an  assistant  is  rapidly  developing  five  or  six  out- 
lying stations.  Recently  three  hundred  were  present 
at  Sunday-school. 

"The  Synodical  evangelist  in  the  same  state  is  also  a 
product  of  the  mountain  mission  work.  This  is  his 
story  as  he  told  it.  'If  you  had  been  looking  for  me 
twenty-five  years  ago,  you  would  have  found  me  in  the 
office  of  my  brother,  then  sheriff  of  the  county,  with  a 
bottle  of  whiskey  in  my  pocket,  a  45  calibre  revolver 
buckled  about  my  waist,  and  a  deck  of  cards  spread  out 
on  the  table  in  front  of  me.  If  you  had  spoken  to  me 
about  religion,  I  would  probably  have  cursed  you." 

"Leading  the  campaign  for  the  endowment  of  one  of 
the  great  schools  of  America  is  another  product  of  South- 
ern Presbyterian  mountain  missions,  one  of  the  most 
virile  and  eloquent  men  who  has  ever  gone  out  of  the 
mountains.  He  recently  returned  to  his  old  home  to 
throw  himself  into  a  political  campaign  to  encompass 
the  defeat  of  a  man  who  was  financially  and  morally 
bankrupting  his  county. 

"In  the  same  state,  a  brilliant  young  mountain  man 
has  been  made  vice-president  of  the  great  mission  school 
of  another  branch  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  He  was 
called  from  the  seminary  to  the  pastorate  of  the  largest 
church  of  his  denomination  in  the  capital  city,  but  de- 
clined it  in  order  to  give  his  life  to  his  own  people.  Sub- 
sequent calls  of  the  most  flattering  character  have  been 
refused. 

"Mountain  missions  have  also  given  to  the  state  some 
of  its  most  honored  and  useful  citizens.  In  one  city 
alone  the  banker  who  is  regarded  the  leading  financial 
authority,  the  men  who  compose  the  largest  firm  in  an 
important  line  of  business,  and  the  pastor  holding  the 
pulpit  of  one  of  the  first  churches,  are  all  mountain  men, 
the  products  of  mountain  missions. 

"It  is,  however,  in  the  mountains  themselves  that  the 


THE  STRENGTH  OF  THE  HILLS 


111 


great  impact  of  mountain  missions  is  being  felt.  Go  to 
those  communities  where  missions  and  schools  have  been 
well  supported  and  wisely  managed  and  you  will  find 
happy  and  cultured  homes,  thriving  churches,  and  God's 
glorious  grace  manifested  in  innumerable  ways. 

"Through  misunderstanding  of  the  mountain  people 
and  the  problems  of  missions  in  their  behalf,  many  sad 
and  foolish  blunders  have  been  committed.  Now,  that 
the  pioneering  has  been  done,  the  problem  is  to  find  the 
right  workers  and  the  adequate  means  to  support  them. 
When  properly  conducted,  mountain  missions  give  con- 
tinuous and  heartening  returns  for  the  labor  and  money 
invested." 

Recruiting  Ground  of  the  Church.  The  mountain 
schools  can  be  made  the  Church's  most  fruitful  recruit- 
ing ground  for  workers,  for  both  the  Home  and  Foreign 
fields.  It  has  been  said: 

"In  the  cities  ninety  per  cent  of  all  that  the  children 
see  tells  them  of  man.  In  the  mountains  ninety-six  per 


CHRISTIAN  RECRUITS 


112  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

cent  of  all  that  they  see  tells  them  of  God.  Nearly  all 
our  young  men  who  are  called  of  God  into  the  gospel 
ministry  are  country  reared.  In  the  mountains  the  rural 
influences  that  lead  youth  to  hear  the  voice  of  God 
reach  their  strongest  expression." 

A  people  that  has  never  failed  to  send  forth  volunteers 
at  the  country's  call,  will  respond  when  the  call  of  a  needy 
world  is  presented  to  them.  The  life  of  a  mountain  boy 
or  girl  is  a  struggle  against  difficulties.  When  they  are 
given  a  vision  of  the  world's  needs  and  are  challenged 
by  the  command  of  Christ  to  become  soldiers  of  the 
Cross,  they  will  answer  the  call  to  the  Church's  most 
difficult  fields  in  larger  numbers  than  will  the  youth  of 
any  other  part  of  our  land. 

Changes  in  the  Mountains.  In  many  mountain 
sections  there  is  a  new  day  with  new  conditions.  The 
discovery  that  the  hills  are  covered  with  timber  and  un- 
derlaid with  coal,  is  sending  industry  and  railroads  into 
the  most  inaccessible  nooks  and  corners.  Valleys  that 
once  held  a  single  cabin,  or  two  at  most,  are  now  crammed 
with  miners'  huts.  Boys  from  the  mountain  homes  are 
earning  more  in  a  single  week  than  their  fathers  earned 
in  a  year.  A  people  that  have  lived  apart  for  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  are  turned  unprepared  to  meet  the 
mental  and  moral  strain  of  modern  civilization.  This 
emphasizes  the  great  need  of  the  mountain  people  for 
the  guidance  of  the  Christian  school  and  the  steadying 
influence  of  the  Christian  Church. 

The  immediate  question  for  the  Church  is,  shall  these 
people  be  left  to  the  exploitations  of  those  who  covet 
their  rich  lumber  and  ores,  or  shall  they  be  protected 
and  helped  and  saved  to  bless  the  nation  and  the  world? 
In  the  language  of  another,  "We  have  built  light  towers 


THE  STRENGTH  OF  THE  HILLS  113 

at  a  few  centers  which  cast  their  beams  immediately 
about  them,  but  the  land  lying  hugely  between  is  not 
lighted.  .  .  .  We  have  scarcely  touched  the  deeper  and 
darker  sections — the  great  interior  stretches  of  life  on 
the  ranges  where  the  pathos  of  backwardness  in  the  blind 
strength  of  the  mountaineer's  child  is  waiting  for  us." 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  What  are  the  main  features  of  the  mountain  problem? 

2.  What  is  the  severest  test  of  missionary  zeal? 

3.  Who  discovered  the  mountains  to  the  Southern  Presbyterian 

Church? 

4.  Why  was  the  Synod  of  Appalachia  organized? 

5.  Who  were  the  antecedents  of  the  mountain  people? 

6.  What  are  the  fruits  of  isolation? 

7.  Is  there  a  distinction  between  illiteracy  and  ignorance? 

8.  What  are  the  reasons  for  mountain  mission  schools?     Why 

are  hospitals  needed? 

9.  Give  instances  to  prove  that  mountain  missions  pay. 

10.  Why  can  mountain  missions  be  made  the  recruiting  ground 

for  the  Church? 

11.  Does  the  industrial  exploitation  of  the  mountains  lessen  or 

complicate  the  Home  Mission  task? 

12.  Considering  the  self-denying  service  of  the  Church's  mountain 

missionaries,  do  they  receive  the  appreciation  and  support 
thev  deserve? 


CHAPTER  V. 
OUR  FUTURE  CITIZENS 


Our  present  foreign-born  population  is  about  17,- 
500,000  and  there  are  some  20,000,000  more  of  immed- 
iate foreign  extraction. 

Approximately  one-fourth  of  all  the  children  in  the 
United  States  live  in  the  homes  of  the  foreign-born 
as  the  birth  rate  is  everywhere  higher  among  foreign- 
born  than  among  the  native  stock. 

The  percentage  of  foreign-born  farmers  is  greater 
than  that  of  the  native-born  in  a  number  of  our  States. 

Some  of  the  biggest  foreign  cities  in  the  world  are 
to  be  found  in  America. 

The  foreign  language  press  in  America  includes  some 
1,500  publications  with  a  circulation  of  8,000,000  copies 
and  with  a  reading  public  of  possibly  16,000,000. 

There  are  about  4,000,000  Italians  living  in  America. 
They  have  212  newspapers,  with  a  combined  circulation 
of  over  1,000,000  copies. 

About  3,000,000  Poles  who  were  born  under  Austrian, 
German  or  Russian  rule  now  live  in  the  United  States. 
They  have  100  newspapers  in  this  country  with  a  cir- 
culation of  1,500,000. 

Four  hundred  thousand  Greeks  live  in  the  United 
States,  and  they  have  26  newspapers,  one  of  them  being 
the  largest  Greek  paper  published  in  the  world. 

To  be  a  great  nation  does  not  mean  to  be  of  one  blood, 
but  it  must  be  of  one  mind.  Unity  of  spirit  is  of  more 
importance  than  unity  of  race. 

— American  Survey. 


V. 
OUR  FUTURE  CITIZENS 

Home  Mission  work  among  the  non-English-speaking 
peoples  has  the  two-fold  aim  of  making  Christians  and 
citizens.  Ijt  seeks  to  win  them  as  disciples  of  Jesus 
Christ  and  make  them  worthy  citizens  of  the  common- 
wealth in  which  they  live.  No  immigrant  can  be  an 
American  in  spirit  without  the  Christian  ideals  of  the 
American  founders  and  builders.  The  Home  Mission 
purpose  is  to  Americanize  these  new  citizens  by  evan- 
gelizing them. 

"The  term  'foreigner'  is  obsolete  in  America.  With 
war  mingling  the  blood  of  several  nations  in  the  same 
red  stream,  the  term  'allies'  has  become  the  fitting  appel- 
lation for  those  sons  of  other  lands  who  love  the  truth 
and  fight  for  the  right.  The  immigrant  is  now  thought 
of  as  our  future  citizen.  As  such  he  must  be  given  the 
opportunity  afforded  our  own  sons.  Our  dream  of 
Christian  democracy  must  be  his.  Will  he  catch  it? 
The  patient  teachings  of  its  ideals  will  give  him  the  back- 
ground for  making  it  his  own.  The  practical  applica- 
tion of  its  principles  in  dealing  with  him  will  help  him 
to  possess  it.  His  failure  or  success  depends  on  us."* 

The  Enormity  of  the  Task.  The  magnitude  and 
importance  of  this  missionary  undertaking  appears  in 
the  fact  that  since  1820,  the  beginning  of  the  record  of 
immigration  by  our  Government,  33,200,103  foreigners 
have  arrived.  According  to  the  last  census,  there  are 
about  17,500,000  foreign-born  persons  living  in  the 


""Christian  Democracy  for  America. 


118  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

United  States,  and  17,500,000  children  of  foreign-born 
parentage — which  means  that  about  one-third  of  the 
entire  population  is  less  than  one  generation  removed 
from  their  ancestral  homes. 

Present  events  indicate  that  the  tide  of  immigration 
will  rise  higher  than  at  any  time  in  the  century  of  immi- 
gration which  has  just  closed.  It  is  the  opinion  of  some 
students  of  the  question  that  unless  there  is.  legislative 
restriction,  the  term  "immigration"  will  no  longer  be 
descriptive  of  the  incoming  multitudes,  but  the  word 
"migration"  will  have  to  be  used.  Whole  peoples  or 
sections  of  peoples  are  wraiting  to  be  transferred  to  the 
United  States.  They  are  being  drawn  here  by  our  free 
institutions  and  the  opportunity  of  life,  liberty  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness,  and  the  desire  to  escape  the  priva- 
tions and  poverty  following  the  great  war,  together  with 
the  crushing  burden  of  taxation.  In  fact,  America  may 
be  likened  to  Egypt  in  the  days  of  Joseph:  "All  coun- 
tries came  into  Egypt  for  to  buy  corn,  because  that  the 
famine  was  so  sore  in  all  lands."  Europe  is  hungry  and 
crowded.  America  has  room  and  plenty.  Hence  the 
attractive  power  of  the  United  States  to  the  millions 
in  poverty  and  want  and  lacking  opportunity  for  im- 
provement. 

"America  bears  in  her  forehead  the  magnetic  pole  of 
the  world.  Towards  it  the  compass  of  every  ship  on 
all  the  seas  is  set.  The  Statue  of  Liberty  Enlightening 
the  World,  in  the  harbor  of  New  York,  waves  her  torch 
of  light  to  the  wanderers  of  every  land,  while  her  bronze 
lips  seem  to  shout  a  welcome  to  every  kind  of  prodigal 
who  has  wasted  his  substance — if  he  ever  had  any — in 
the  riotous  poverty  of  some  far  country.  Gathered  from 
all  nations  of  Europe,  like  the  tributaries  of  a  mighty 
stream,  they  become  united  and  centralized  here  only 


OUR  FUTURE  CITIZENS  119 

to  diverge  again  sooner  or  later,  across  the  nation  or,  in 
a  few  cases,  to  return  to  their  native  land  to  die. 

"From  every  throne  of  Europe,  where  for  ages  men 
have  gilded,  kissed  or  cursed  their  hereditary  bondage, 
come  these  heterogeneous  millions,  attracted  by  two 
words — liberty  and  money.  They  represent  a  despot- 
ism which  has  held  its  foot  upon  the  necks  of  men  until 
seemingly  every  vestige  of  manhood  is  trodden  out. 
They  are  men  upon  whose  lives  are  written  ignorance, 
bigotry  and  the  foulest  passions  of  the  human  heart- 
but  they  are  men.  Others  have  caught  a  breath  of  free- 
dom and  with  unwisdom  construe  it  into  license,  and 
shame  to  the  nation  and  its  manhood  is  written  upon 
fadeless  records.  Others  still,  breaking  the  fetters  of 
old-world  bondage,  with  clear  eyes  and  hearts  of  hope, 
offer  to  the  State  a  man  and  womanhood  to  which  the 
noblest  civilization  might  give  a  hearty  welcome."* 

A  World  Ministry.  In  the  light  of  this  immigrant 
tide,  the  statement  so  frequently  heard,  that  "As  goes 
America,  so  goes  the  world,"  is  not  merely  a  rhetorical 
phrase,  but  a  truth  that  each  day  becomes  increasingly 
evident.  America's  world  influence  comes  not  so  much 
from  what  we  are  doing  abroad,  as  from  what  we  are 
doing  at  home.  Not  only  does  America  touch  the  world 
through  education,  commerce  and  diplomacy,  but  she 
has  opened  wide  her  gates  to  as  many  as  will  come, 
thereby  touching  and  uplifting  Europe,  Asia,  Africa  and 
the  islands  of  the  sea,  through  the  representatives  from 
these  distant  lands  that  have  come  to  live  within  her 
spacious  borders.  It  is  through  immigration  that  the 
peculiar  relation  of  America  to  the  world  is  seen.  And 
among  the  many  great  tasks  confronting  American 
Christianity  there  is  none  that  is  more  important  or 


*Rev.  Fred  H.  Allen,  "The  Problem  of  the  City." 


120 


UNFINISHED  TASKS 


that  is  so  far-reaching  in  its  power  for  good  or  evil  as  it 
is  accepted  or  neglected,  as  the  opportunity  presented 
by  the  presence  of  so  many  million  foreign-speaking 
peoples.  Dr.  R.  S.  Storrs  has  said,  "The  future  of  the 
whole  world  is  pivoted  on  the  question  of  whether  the 
Protestant  churches  of  America  can  hold,  enlighten  and 
purify  the  great  numbers  born  or  gathered  within  our 
borders." 

Greatest  Mission  Field. 

"The  greatest  foreign  mission  land  on  the  globe  today 
is  our  own  America.  Here  we  do  not  go  in  search  of  the 
the  millions;  the  millions  come  to  us.  We  are  not  com- 
pelled to  learn  their  language;  they  are  eager  to  learn 
ours.  We  are  not  obliged  to  conform  to  alien  customs; 
they  are  here  to  adopt  ours.  We  are  not  a  little  group 
engulfed  in  hundreds  of  millions  of  alien  faith;  we  are 


NEW  AMERICANS  ARRIVING 


OUR  FUTURE  CITIZENS  121 

the  majority.  Our  faith  is  ingrained  in  the  very  fiber 
of  the  government,  established  in  the  customs  of  the 
land.  These  strangers  from  all  the  shores  of  the  world 
are  here  cut  loose  from  their  native  governments  and 
religious  customs.  A  hiatus  between  the  old  and  the 
new  exists  in  both  their  political  and  religious  thinking. 
That  hiatus,  that  pause  in  thought,  is  the  open  door  for 
the  entrance  of  new  and  better  things.  We  are  not  com- 
pelled to  uproot  and  displace  old-established  beliefs. 
That  process  is  already  begun  by  the  very  fact  of  their 
migration.  They  are  in  the  pioneering,  adventurous 
mood.  They  expect  new  experiences,  different  condi- 
tions. This  is  the  great  open  world  field  for  the  Church. 
While  she  need  not  neglect  her  foreign  markets,  she  must 
not  forget  that  the  markets  of  the  world  are  pressing  to 
her  doors,  asking  for  her  wares. 

"In  stable,  office,  mill  and  shop  these  millions  are 
here — Americans  in  the  making.  We  are  providentially 
appointed  masters  to  bring  them  on  into  the  rights  and 
privileges  and  responsibilities  of  citizenship.  The  teach- 
er in  her  crowded  school,  surrounded  by  a  polyglot 
throng  of  restless,  ill-kempt,  jabbering  children,  rnay 
lose  heart  and  seem  to  herself  to  be  engaged  in  a  fruitless 
struggle,  a  losing  fight;  but  with  patience,  brave  heart, 
and  love — out  of  that  throng  will  come  teachers,  artists, 
singers,  writers,  inventors,  financiers,  statesmen  and 
substantial  business  men.  What  mission  school  ever 
established  in  foreign  field  can  compare  with  this  in 
present  opportunity  and  range  of  possibility?  The  same 
is  true  of  all  our  efforts  at  religious  instruction."11 

Influence  of  Environment.  In  the  early  days 
when  the  immigration  was  from  the  North  and  \Vest  of 
Europe  and  was  made  up  in  large  part  of  English,  Irish, 
Scotch,  German  and  Scandinavian,  a  representative  of 
the  Church  met  the  immigrant  and  his  family  at  the 


*American  Missionary  Society. 


122  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

port  of  entry.  He  was  protected  against  exploitation, 
and  was  helped  to  locate  where  there  was  opportunity 
to  have  a  home  and  get  ahead.  Churches  were  founded 
and  they  were  given  ministers  who  could  speak  their 
tongue.  They  speedily  became  American  in  spirit  as 
well  as  in  name,  and  constitute  the  great  strength  of  the 
nation  of  which  they  are  a  part. 

Today  the  immigrants  are  from  the  South  and  East 
of  Europe.  They  come  from  countries  where  the  Bible 
is  largely  a  closed  book.  Many  of  them  bring  a  super- 
stitious faith  and  hatred  of  the  Church  they  know,  and 
a  suspicion  or  hatred  of  the  government  they  have  ex- 
perienced. The  Church  does  not  meet  them  at  the  port, 
and  they  are  not  protected  against  the  exploitation  of 
thieves  and  robbers.  Instead  of  settling  in  those  sec- 
tions where  they  could  find  a  home  and  become  a  help- 
ful part  of  the  community,  they  are  permitted  to  herd 
in  groups  by  themselves  with  the  result  that  there  are 
foreign  cities  and  foreign  towns  in  the  heart  of  America, 
which  are  as  alien  in  thought  and  feeling  and  as  difficult 
to  reach  with  the  gospel  as  they  would  be  in  the  lands 
from  which  they  came. 

Thirty-three  of  our  largest  cities  are  more  foreign  than 
American.  New  York  City  is  both  an  illustration  and  a 
prophecy  of  what  other  great  centers  will  become.  Its 
increase  in  population  during  the  past  twenty  years  in 
Russians,  Italians,  Austrio-Hungarians,  was  greater  in 
each  case  than  the  native  population. 

"New  York  is  no  longer  an  American  city.  It  is  the 
largest  Irish  city  in  the  world.  It  is  the  largest  Hebrew 
city  in  the  world,  having  a  Jewish  population  fifteen 
times  as  large  as  the  Jewish  population  of  Jerusalem, 
and  ten  times  as  large  as  the  Jewish  population  of  all 


OUR  FUTURE  CITIZENS  123 

Palestine.  There  are  only  two  nations  that  as  nations 
have  a  Hebrew  population  equal  to  that  of  New  York. 
It  has  more  Germans  than  any  German  city  except  Ber- 
lin, there  being  more  residents  of  the  city  with  German 
parents  than  with  American  parents.  It  has  a  larger 
Italian  population  than  any  city  in  Italy  except  Naples 
and  Rome."* 

Some  one  has  pointed  out  that  New  York  is  owned  by 
the  Jews,  ruled  by  the  Irish,  and  rented  to  the  Americans. 

Responsibility  of  the  Church.  It  is  not  always  easy 
to  make  good  Christians  and  good  Americans  of  people 
who  live  under  the  best  conditions,  in  the  best  surround- 
ings, but  the  task  is  made  increasingly  difficult  when  the 
surroundings  are  bad.  Three-fourths  of  the  immigrants 
live  in  cities  in  crowded  tenements,  or  in  huts  and  shacks 
in  the  mining  regions  and  industrial  centers.  They  see 
'little  of  the  true  America,  and  do  not  come  in  contact 
with  the  best  Christian  people.  Possessing  fine  churches 
of  our  own,  we  have  endeavored  to  serve  them,  if  at  all,  in 
old  unused  grocery  stores  and  dilapidated  buildings  on 
the  side  streets.  Gates  of  wickedness — unlike  anything 
known  to  their  simple  life  in  the  homeland — open  to 
them  on  every  turn.  This  is  the  idea  of  Protestant 
Christianity  and  American  democracy  that  many  re- 
ceive. 

The  Church  cannot  dismiss  these  people  on  the  plea 
that  it  is  impossible  to  make  good  Christian  Americans 
out  of  ignorant  degraded  foreigners.  That  they  are 
ignorant  is  not  their  fault;  that  they  are  degraded  may 
be  ours.  The  fact  is,  the  great  majority  wish  to  become 
good  Americans  and  want  to  be  taught  the  way.  They 
were  drawn  here  by  their  desire  for  freedom.  Exper- 


*The  City  and  the  Kingdom. 


124  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

ience  proves  that  many  of  them  are  just  as  open  to  the 
gospel  and  capable  of  fine  Christian  character  and  fine 
Americanism  as  \vere  our  Anglo-Saxon  forefathers,  if 
given  the  same  chance.  If  they  sell  their  votes  it  is 
because  they  are  following  the  example  of  others,  and 
some  American  patriot  is  buying  them.  Call  the  roll 
of  the  nation's  foremost  citizens,  the  leaders  in  every 
department  of  our  country's  life — religious,  educational, 
commercial,  political,  financial — and  find  how  many  were 
born  in  homes  of  poverty  and  want  beyond  the  sea  whose 
coming  here  was  in  response  to  a  desire  for  the  higher 
privileges  of  American  education  and  citizenship!  Why 
should  we  look  down  upon  these  people,  and  think  of 
them  as  a  menace,  when  with  the  proper  instruction  and 
guidance  they  are  capable  of  so  much. 

The  Future  American.  Our  nation  is  too  young, 
and  the  elements  entering  into  its  life  too  many  and  di- 
verse, for  America  to  have  developed  a  distinctive  phy- 
sical type.  But  it  will  come.  God  works  slowly,  but 
He  works  none  the  less  surely.  Ruskin  reminds  us  that 
out  of  an  unlovely  handful  of  common  dust,  clay  and 
soot,  in  the  slow  laboratory  of  the  ages,  God  can  build 
walls  of  sapphire  and  diamonds. 

We  are  all  ready  to  admit  the  unequalled  contribution 
made  to  the  nation  by  the  older  immigration,  to  which 
the  most  of  us  trace  our  lineage.  But  the  Slav,  the 
Italian  and  the  Jew  now  head  the  list  of  the  immigrants. 
These  races  have  been  sending  their  sons  and  daughters 
to  us  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands.  We  have  thought 
of  them  as  inferior  to  ourselves.  Bishop  E.  H.  Hughes 
has  brought  together  a  list  of  conspicuous  services  ren- 
dered by  these  races  which  he  thinks  makes  all  mankind 
their  debtor. 


OUR  FUTURE  CITIZENS  125 

"When  we  look  up  into  the  heavens  we  must  remember 
that  it  was  a  Slav  named  Copernicus  who,  in  the  early 
days  of  the  sixteenth  century,  long  before  Newton  came 
with  his  discovery,  gave  us  the  theory  of  the  sun  and 
earth  and  skies  that  still  bears  his  name. 

"When  we  go  into  the  schoolroom  we  must  remember 
that  it  was  a  Slav  named  Comenius  who,  losing  all  his 
property  and  writings  by  Romanish  persecution,  fled 
in  the  seventeenth  century  to  Poland  and  became- the 
greatest  educational  pioneer  and  reformer  of  his  age, 
long  anticipating  Froebel  and  Horace  Mann. 

"It  was  a  Slav  named  Sobieski  who,  in  1683  overthrew 
the  Turkish  army  in  front  of  Hapsburg,  and  so  became 
a  mighty  stay  against  the  flood  of  Mohammedanism 
that  pushed  toward  Europe  and  the  West. 

"It  was  a  Slav  named  Kosciusko  who,  coming  in  the 
impulse  of  freedom  to  aid  our  continental  armies,  planned 
the  fortifications  at  Saratoga,  and  became  chief  engineer 
in  constructing  the  fortifications  at  West  Point.  He  was 
thanked  by  Congress  and  advanced  to  rank  of  Brigadier 
General. 

"It  was  another  Slav,  of  noble  family,  named  Pulaski, 
who  volunteered  in  the  American  service  against  the 
British,  and  in  the  siege  of  Savannah  poured  out  his  life 
as  a  titled  martyr  to  the  principles  of  American  democ- 
racy. 

"By  many  the  Italian  is  classed  with  the  undesirables. 
He  has  succeeded  the  Irishman  as  the  digger  of  ditches 
and  builder  of  roads.  He  has  won  the  epithet  of  'Dago.' 
But  what  have  his  ancestors  done  for  the  world  that  he 
should  merit  our  respect? 

"Among  other  things,  the  Italians  gave  us  the  con- 
ception of  law  and  government  that  entered,  in  such  a 
marked  way,  into  the  moulding  of  our  Christian  faith; 
and  those  highways  along  which  the  feet  of  Paul  and  the 
early  disciples  went  on  their  missionary  journeys. 

"They  gave  us  Raphael,  del  Sarto,  Angelico,  and  a 
host  of  the  world's  greatest  artists,  reaching  the  human 
climax  with  Michael  Angelo. 


126  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

"They  gave  Galileo  in  astronomy,  Dante  and  Virgil 
in  literature,  Mazzini  and  Garibaldi  in  patriotism,  the 
Cabots  in  exploration,  and  Columbus  for  the  discovery 
of  our  continent. 

"They  gave  Volta,  who  is  memorialized  by  the  word 
'volt;'  Galvani,  who  is  memorialized  by  the  word  'gal- 
vanic;' and  the  discoverer  of  wireless  telegraphy  in  Mar- 
coni." 

Sympathy    and    Understanding    Needed.     Miss 

Myrtle  Mae  Haskin  of  the  Ensley,  Alabama,  Italian 
Missions,  gives  the  following  illustrations  out  of  many 
in  her  experience: 

"They  are  strangers  in  a  strange  land.  Many  times 
they  have  need  of  a  friend,  a  real  friend  in  this  land 
where  they  have  come  to  live.  One  Italian  lad  worked 
and  saved  enough  to  send  for  his  mother.  He  had  a 
tiny  place  rented  and  ready  for  her  when  she  came.  But 
she  had  been  in  America  just  fifteen  days  when  they 
brought  back  her  boy  from  the  plant  where  he  worked, 
mangled  and  dead.  Everything  in  life  for  her  was  gone. 
Everything  a  blank.  She  awoke  in  a  hospital  where 
she  could  not  understand  a  word  said  by  the  doctor  and 
nurse.  She  could  not  eat  the  food.  She  had  never  seen 
anything  like  it  before.  With  only  a  bitter  memory 
for  company  she  must  pass  the  days  away.  Thus  I 
found  her.  The  doctor  said  there  was  nothing  the  mat- 
ter with  her  but  a  broken  heart.  She  had  nothing  to 
live  for  and  did  not  wish  to  live.  They  could  do  noth- 
ing but  let  her  waste  away. 

"Friendless  and  crushed  with  sorrow  in  a  strange  land, 
far  from  home  and  friends.  There  are  many  such  in 
America." 

"One  idea  which  they  bring  with  them  to  America  is 
that  God  is  a  great  Judge  watching  to  see  when  He  can 
punish  them.  And  this  is  why  they  each  have  their 
patron  saint  whom  they  honor  and  pray  to.  This  saint 
is  to  act  as  their  lawyer  and  argue  their  case  with  God, 


OUR  FUTURE  CITIZENS  127 

the  great  Judge.  They  never  think  of  Him  as  a  loving 
Father  trying  to  help  them  in  their  struggles  and  want- 
ing them  to  win  in  Jesus'  name  and  through  His  grace, 
But  when  they  once  get  a  heart  knowledge  of  Jno.  3:16, 
they  have  a  faith  in  their  Father  that  often  puts  us  to 
shame.  Often  they  express  their  faith  in  ways  which  we 
cannot  forget. 

"When  Dominic  Faglione  prayed  in  the  hospital  for 
his  wife's  recovery,  after  she  had  been  given  up  by  all 
medical  skill,  he  pleaded,  'God  is  love,  He  will  let  her 
stay  with  me  and  the  two  babies  who  need  her  so  much.' 
He  prayed  until  he  got  his  answer  and  with  shining  eyes 
he  said,  'Me  no  can  say  it  just  like  you,  but  me  feel  it 
here,'  and  he  put  his  hand  over  his  heart.  He  had  faith 
to  believe  it,  and  God  did  let  her  stay. 

"Get  back  of  the  why?  and  understand  them.  One 
volunteer  helper  said  to  me,  'I  cannot  understand  Ar- 
nold and  Caesar  Bennecchio.  They  do  not  seem  to  be 
such  bad  boys,  but  I  can't  make  them  stop  drawing 
their  faces.  They  have  done  it  so  much  that  I  believe 
they  do  it  without  knowing  it  now.'  She  was  quite 
right,  they  did  it  unconsciously  because  their  mother  is 
a  mute,  and  they  were  used  to  talking  to  her  that  way 
to  make  her  understand.  They  did  not  do  it  to  annoy 
the  teacher.  When  I  told  her  this,  she  said,  'I  have  had 
my  lesson.  Never  again  will  I  attempt  to  stop  a  thing 
and  criticize  until  I  get  back  of  the  why,  and  understand 
what  causes  it  to  exist.' 

"Let  us  also  get  back  of  the  why  and  understand  them, 
not  criticize  from  the  distance." 

Patriotism  of  These  New  Citizens.  If  possible  the 
patriotism  of  many  foreign-born  is  more  intense  than 
that  of  many  native  Americans.  A  great  deal  has  been 
said  about  "hyphen-ates,"  "dual  citizenship,"  and  'di- 
vided allegiance."  There  are  some,  but  not  all  are  like 
that.  Liberty  is  sweet  to  men  who  have  been  in  a  dun- 


128  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

geon.     "They    know    the   pit    from    which    they   were 
digged." 

"We  talk  about  the  immigrant  as  though  he  was  not 
a  part  of  us.  Yet  what  a  revelation  comes  from  reading 
the  casualty  lists  from  the  battlefront  overseas!  One- 
fourth  of  the  arm-bearing  power  of  our  nation  is  foreign 
born.  A  morning  newspaper  picked  up  at  random  is 
evidence  of  the  fact  that  we  are  all  largely  Americans 
by  adoption.  In  the  lists  of  killed  and  wounded  we  find 
officers  and  privates  alike  whose  names  read  as  follows: 
Shanoff,  Winkler,  Marosco,  Nazzareno,  Vaillancourt, 
Walczak,  Papernick,  Koskoka,  Adamowyzc,  Olgivie, 
Balicki,  Neitzke,  Helwig,  Liddi,  Haig,  Svegan,  Bekas, 
Gotschall,  Pelarz,  and  the  like.  Why  not  recognize 
that  in  meeting  the  question  of  Christian  democracy  for 
the  non-English-speaking  people  of  the  United  States 
and  those  who  will  come  later,  we  are  solving  our  own 
problem?  This  query  gains  importance  when  we  con- 
sider the  way  in  which  our  entire  industrial  system  is 
carried  on  by  those  we  have  unjustly  called  'foreigners.' 

"Our  guests  are  become  more  than  alien  visitors.  They 
are  of  our  own  household,  and  patriotism  is  as  fervent 
with  them  as  it  is  with  us.  The  great  industries  that 
made  possible  the  speediest  victory  and  termination  of 
the  war  were  manned  largely,  if  not  almost  entirely,  by 
men  from  other  countries.  How  far  the  ofttimes  de 
spised  immigrant  has  measured  up  to  his  task  in  increas- 
ing and  improving  output  is  a  matter  of  common  knowl- 
edge. His  support  of  the  Red  Cross,  his  war  savings, 
and  his  Liberty  Loan  subscriptions  compare  with  the 
record  of  any  other  proud  patriot  of  the  oldest  stock  in 
America."* 

Perils  of  Neglect.  While  these  foreign-born  hold 
great  possibilities  for  good,  they  also  present  great  ele- 
ments of  danger.  Whether  they  are  to  become  Christians 


'"Christian  Democracy." 


OUR  FUTURE  CITIZENS  129 

and  patriots  depend  upon  the  efforts  of  the  Church  in 
their  behalf. 

It  is  said  that  Trotzky's  companion  in  America  was 
converted  in  a  mission  and  that  he  is  now  a  tireless  Chris- 
tian worker,  and  a  loyal,  patriotic  citizen.  The  night 
before  Trotzky  sailed  for  Russia,  he  gathered  his  fol- 
lowers together  in  a  room  in  Eastside,  New  York,  in 
what  was  intended  to  be  a  secret  meeting,  but  which 
was  attended  by  a  secret  service  man,  and  said:  "I 
want  you  to  remain  in  this  country  and  bring  on  one 
revolution  after  another,  until  you  overturn  this  dirty, 
rotten  American  government,  while  I  go  to  Russia  and 
overturn  that  government  and  stop  Russia's  war  against 
Germany."  The  difference  between  Trotzky,  the  Bol- 
shevist and  assassin,  and  his  converted  friend,  the  pa- 
triot, is  Christianity. 

Having  wrought  havoc  in  Russia,  the  Bolshevist  agents 
are  preaching  their  accursed  doctrines  in  every  part  of 
the  world.  They  are  reaching  out  into  India,  and  China, 
and  into  Africa,  and  into  all  of  continental  Europe. 
Thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  are  at  work  in  Amer- 
ica. It  is  stated  from  Washington  that  300,000  Bol- 
shevist agitators  are  stirring  up  strife  and  discord  in  this 
country.  Americanization  alone  will  not  meet  a  situa- 
tion like  this.  It  must  be  Christianization.  The  propa- 
ganda of  the  Bolshevists  must  be  met  by  a  campaign  of 
evangelization,  not  only  among  the  foreigners,  but  among 
the  Negroes,  the  Indians,  the  mountaineers,  and  the 
well-to-do,  careless  and  indifferent  Americans.  Bolshe- 
vism will  make  no  headway  among  people  who  believe 
in  God  and  the  Bible  and  who  support  the  Church  and 
its  work. 


130  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

What  the  Church  is  Doing.  The  Southern  Pres- 
byterian Church  is  making  an  earnest  effort  to  reach,  the 
immigrant  with  the  gospel.  While  the  Church  has  al- 
ways felt  a  measure  of  responsibility  for  all  needy  classes 
in  our  midst,  and  individual  congregations  ministered 
to  the  few  immigrants  that  chanced  to  be  in  their  com- 
munities, the  Immigrant  Work  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee was  started  in  1910.  Until  this  time  the  immi- 
grants had  settled  almost  entirely  in  the  North  and 
East.  With  the  development  of  the  large  industrial 
centers  in  the  South,  and  the  opening  of  the  coal  mines 
in  the  southern  mountains,  thousands  were  turned  in 
this  direction.  The  work  has  been  enlarged  as  rapidly 
as  the  Committee  has  been  able  to  find  workers  and  pro- 
cure the  equipment.  The  workers  of  the  Assembly  are 
now  preaching  the  gospel  among  the  Mexicans,  in  Texas; 
Cubans,  in  Florida;  French,  in  Louisiana;  Italians,  in 
Birmingham,  Alabama;  New  Orleans  and  Baton  Rouge, 
Louisiana;  and  Kansas  City,  Missouri;  Bohemians,  in 
Virginia;  Hungarians,  in  Louisiana  and  in  the  coal  fields 


SYRIAN  CHILDREN,  ATLANTA  MISSION 


OUR  FUTURE  CITIZENS  131 

of  Virginia  and  West  Virginia;  Syrians,  in  Atlanta; 
Chinese,  in  New  Orleans;  Hebrews,  in  Baltimore. 

A  few  illustrations  are  given  descriptive  of  the  work 
and  the  results.  In  most  cases  these  people  are  open 
and  responsive,  and  generally  appreciative  of  the  service 
the  Church  seeks  to  render. 

Italian  Mission,  Kansas  City,  Missouri.  This  is 
the  largest  and  best  equipped  Italian  Mission  of  the 
Southern  Presbyterian  Church.  It  is  owned  and  super- 
vised by  the  Central  Presbyterian  Church,  and  aided 
by  the  Assembly's  Committee.  This  Mission  is  under 
the  charge  of  Rev.  J.  B.  Bisceglia,  a  finely  educated  and 
efficient  minister  of  our  Church,  assisted  by  Mrs.  Bis- 
ceglia, and  a  resident  worker  and  kindergarten  teacher. 
Some  of  the  finest  physicians,  surgeons  and  specialists 
in  the  city  conduct  the  clinics.  The  clubs  for  the  boys 
and  girls,  the  music  and  sewing  classes,  are  served  by 
volunteer  workers  from  the  churches  in  Kansas  City. 
This  mission  with  its  varied  activities  is  rapidly  becom- 
ing one  of  the  best  of  its  kind  in  the  country.  It  is 
proving  its  real  worth  and  usefulness  among  the  10,000 
Italians  in  Kansas  City.  The  mission  publishes  its  own 
paper,  The  Italio-American  Review.  Through  this 
monthly  magazine  the  mission  is  rendering  a  large  service 
in  the  evangelization  and  Americanization  of  the  Ital- 
ians, not  only  in  Kansas  City,  but  throughout  the 
United  States. 

The  following  program  of  work  is  carried  out  week  after 
week,  thoughout  the  year,  adding  to  it  the  Daily  Va- 
cation Bible  School  in  the  summer  and  a  number  of 
entertainments  from  time  to  time. 

Sunday:  Bible-school,  Christian  Endeavor,  preaching 
service. 


OUR  FUTURE  CITIZENS  133 

Monday:  Kindergarten,  three  clinics — women's  di- 
seases, surgery,  general  diseases;  junior  girls'  club. 

Tuesday:  Kindergarten;  junior  boys'  club;  library. 

Wednesday:  Kindergarten;  young  Italians'  music 
club;  Americanization  class. 

Thursday:  Kindergarten;  clinic — women's  diseases; 
girls'  club;  prayer-meeting. 

Friday:  Kindergarten;  piano  lessons;  social  evening. 

Saturday:  Violin  lessons;  piano  lessons;  sewing  school; 
boys'  work;  clinic — eye,  ear,  nose  and  throat. 

The  following  account  of  the  mission  and  its  work  is 
given  by  Mr.  Bisceglia,  the  minister  in  charge: 

"Ours  is  the  only  institution  of  its  kind  that  ministers 
exclusively  to  the  Italians,  reaching  in  various  ways  dur- 
ing the  year,  at  least  5,000  people.  Most  of  the  Italians 
here  are  from  the  southern  part  of  Italy;  seventy -five 
per  cent  come  from  the  agricultural  districts  of  Sicily, 
possessing  therefore  all  the  good  and  bad  qualities,  the 
advantages  and  disadvantages  of  the  farmers  transplanted 
at  a  rather  mature  age  in  a  large  industrial  city  where 
the  climate,  the  language,  the  customs,  the  working  con- 
ditions and  the  people  are  altogether  different  from  what 
they  have  been  accustomed  to  since  their  childhood. 

"The  results  so  far  have  been  very  encouraging  and 
the  fruits  fairly  abundant.  Our  clinic,  started  about 
six  or  seven  months  ago,  is  well  attended.  During  this 
time  hundreds  of  cases  have  come  to  our  clinic,  a  dozen 
of  operations  for  tonsillitis  have  been  performed  at  the 
Settlement  House,  a  number  of  minor  operations  and 
several  major  operations  were  performed  in  the  hospitals 
by  our  surgeons.  During  the  small-pox  epidemic  hun- 
dreds of  men,  women  and  children  were  vaccinated  by 
paying  a  small  fee  of  thirty  cents,  which  covered  the 
expense  of  vaccine  and  dressing.  The  consensus  of 
opinion  among  those  connected  with  our  work  is  that 
the  clinic  has  been  a  marked  success. 

"The  kindergarten  has  an  average  attendance  of  fifty 


134  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

in  the  summer  time,  and  twenty-eight  during  the  school 
year.  The  sewing  school  on  Saturday  afternoon  is 
attended  by  over  one  hundred  children.  There  are 
forty  pupils  in  the  music  department.  The  Junior 
Boys'  Club  has  a  membership  of  thirty-five;  the  Girls' 
Club  has  a  membership  of  fifty;  and  the  Junior  Girls' 
Club  has  a  membership  of  thirty.  The  boys'  work,  on 
Saturday  from  9:00  a.  m.  to  5:00  p.  m.,  has  a  very  bright 
future;  in  a  few  weeks  we  have  enrolled  more  than  fifty 
boys.  The  Sunday-school  has  an  enrollment  of  one 
hundred  and  thirty-five,  with  an  average  attendance  of 
over  one  hundred.  The  Christian  Endeavor  Society 
was  organized  the  first  week  of  this  year  and  has  an 
average  attendance  of  thirty-five.  Our  church  member- 
ship is  now  over  one  hundred,  and  the  preaching  ser- 
vices on  Sunday  evening  and  prayer-meeting  on  Thurs- 
day evenings  are  well  attended. 

"One  well-established  fact  in  work  for  the  Italians  is 
that  the  parents  bring  their  children  to  the  mission,  and 
not  the  children  their  parents.  About  two  years  ago 
two  children,  a  boy  of  seven  and  a  girl  of  eleven,  came 
to  our  Sunday-school.  They  had  been  very  regular  in 
their  attendance  and  always  on  time.  During  the  Daily 
Vacation  Bible  School  the  boy  learned  all  the  memory 
verses  and  was  therefore  presented  with  a  copy  of  the 
Bible.  It  was  not  long  before  the  girl  came  to  me  and 
asked  for  a  copy  of  the  Bible  in  Italian  for  her  father 
who  had  already  read  a  great  part  of  it  in  English,  but 
he  wished  to  read  it  in  the  mother  tongue.  I  visited 
the  man  and  found  a  great  big  strong  fellow  of  about 
thirty-five,  one  of  the  most  straight-forward  men  I  have 
ever  met  in  this  whole  community.  When  I  gave  him 
a  copy  of  the  New  Testament  he  was  so  happy  and  so 
eager  to  read  it — like  a  man  who  has  been  thirsty  for 
a  long,  long  time,  and  all  at  once  discovers  a  fountain 
of  clear,  fresh  water.  He  began  to  attend  the  services 
at  the  Mission.  He  read  the  Bible  devoutly  to  his 
household  and  to  his  friends,  and  at  the  first  communion 
service  he  was  received  on  profession  of  faith  in  Christ, 


OUR  FUTURE  CITIZENS  135 

and  at  the  following  communion  service  he  presented 
his  two  daughters  to  be  admitted  to  membership. 

"The  Roman  Catholic  priests  in  order  to  discredit  the 
work  among  the  Italians  have  sent  broadcast  a  statement 
that  though  the  Italians  come  to  our  meeting  places, 
when  it  comes  to  'sacred  rites,'  like  baptism,  marriage 
and  burial,  they  humbly  return  to  the  mother  church. 
This  is  not  true  of  our  Mission.  Every  child  born  in  a 
family  identified  with  the  Mission  is  baptized  by  the 
minister;  every  marriage  contracted  by  one  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Mission  is  performed  by  the  minister,  and 
every  funeral  is  conducted  by  the  minister. 

"During  my  pastorate  several  girls  from  our  Mission 
have  requested  that  their  future  husband  identify  him- 
self with  the  church  before  being  united  in  matrimonv 
About  three  years  ago  a  girl  came  to  our  Sunday-school 
and  later  she  brought  her  sister  and  brother.  We  called 
on  her  family,  and  they  all  came  to  our  preaching  ser- 
vice. We  gradually  gained  the  confidence  of  the  girl 
and  we  learned  that,  the  father  being  a  strict  Catholic, 
they  had  to  go  first  to  mass  on  Sunday  morning  before 
they  could  come  to  our  Sunday-school.  Gradually  they 
received  permission  from  the  father  to  be  absent  from 
mass,  but  they  were  not  allowed  to  join  our  church. 
About  a  year  ago  a  young  man  from  a  distant  state 
asked  the  father  of  the  girl  the  privilege  to  become  his 
son-in-law.  After  receiving  her  father's  consent  the 
first  thing  the  girl  thought  of  was  to  send  the  young 
man  a  copy  of  the  Bible  and  inform  him  that  she  would 
be  married  by  a  minister.  He  came  to  Kansas  City  and 
became  very  much  interested  in  our  mission  work.  The 
father  finally  consented  to  the  girl  being  received  into 
the  church;  the  young  man  followed  her;  and  they  were 
married  in  our  Mission.  They  both  began  to  work  in 
our  Sunday-school,  and  she  taught  in  our  Daily  Vaca- 
tion Bible  School.  Being  unable  to  find  employment 
in  Kansas  city,  he  returned  to  his  home  town  where  his 
old  position  was  waiting  for  him.  They  placed  their 
letter  at  once  in  the  American  Presbyterian  Church,  and 


136  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

have  been  very  faithful  and  very  active  in  the  Master's 
work." 

Cuban  Mission,  Tampa,  Florida.  In  the  cosmo- 
politan city  of  Tampa  where  thirty-five  languages  are 
spoken  and  sixty  per  cent  of  the  population  is  foreign, 
there  are  30,000  Spanish-speaking  people.  This  colony 
is  a  section  of  Cuba  transferred  to  the  United  States, 
bringing  the  Church  face  to  face  with  the  problems  of 
Sabbath  desecration,  brutal  sports,  illiteracy,  and 
corrupt  religion.  Cuba  is  our  near  neighbor.  The 
people  freely  go  and  come  between  the  two  countries. 
The  United  States  gave  Cuba  her  political  freedom  and 
many  other  material  blessings.  She  is  looking  to 
America  for  guidance  in  many  things.  She  followed 
the  United  States  into  the  world  war  on  the  side  of  the 
Allies  by  an  immediate  declaration  of  war  upon  Ger- 
many. 

There  has  been  an  attempt  to  define  the  sphere  of  in- 
fluence of  the  various  denominations  working  among  the 
Cubans  in  Tampa.  Our  Church  has  been  given  the  re- 
sponsibility for  a  section  covering  sixty-four  city  blocks, 
with  a  population  large  enough  to  occupy  our  attention 
for  years  to  come.  A  large  majority  of  the  Cubans  have 
repudiated  the  dead  formalism  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church.  If  Protestant  Christianity  does  not  claim  them 
and  offer  them  something  better,  they  will  drift  into 
skepticism,  infidelity  and  false  beliefs  of  all  sorts,  as  is 
always  the  case  with  a  people  who  give  up  their  tradi- 
tional faith.  Our  mission,  under  the  direction  of  a  splen- 
did Cuban  pastor,  is  reaching  a  large  number  through 
the  Sunday-school,  Christian  Endeavor,  and  the  regular 
church  services.  The  mission  is  gradually  building  up 


OUR  FUTURE  CITIZENS  137 

a  protestant  constituency  that  is  making  its  influence 
felt  throughout  the  Cuban  colony. 

Bohemian  Work.  These  people  are  from  the  new 
nation  of  Czecho-Slovakia,  of  which  Bohemia  forms  the 
larger  part.  The  center  of  this  mission  is  in  Prince 
George  County,  Virginia,  in  East  Hanover  Presbytery. 
It  was  seriously  interrupted  during  the  war,  when  the 
pastor,  Rev.  J.  A.  Kohout,  returned  to  the  old  world  to 
do  his  part  in  the  Allied  Cause.  During  the  absence  of 
the  pastor  the  work  was  carried  on  by  an  elder  and  his 
wife,  and  the  little  flock  was  held  together.  Services 
and  Sabbath-schools  are  conducted  at  four  points.  This 
is  a  permanent  settlement,  the  members  being  mostly 
farmers  who  have  procured  their  own  homes.  While 
the  Czecho-Slovaks  are  nominally  Catholic,  a  great 
number  have  broken  absolutely  with  Catholicism,  and 
have  entered  the  evangelical  churches,  or  become  infi- 
dels and  "Free  Thinkers."  Bohemian  unbelievers  are 
the  most  bitter  enemies  of  the  Church.  They  form  so- 
cieties which  declare  their  infidelity  in  their  very  consti- 
tution, and  publish  newspapers  which  heap  contempt 
upon  Christianity. 

In  estimating  the  worth  of  these  people,  we  must  not 
forget  that  one  of  their  ancestors,  named  John  Huss,  a 
full  century  before  Martin  Luther  started  the  Reforma- 
tion, was  a  martyr  to  the  Protestant  faith. 

This  little  Bohemian  congregation,  only  a  few  years 
old,  under  the  leadership  of  their  devoted  leaders,  takes 
part  in  the  Progressive  Program,  and  contributes  to 
every  Church  cause.  It  has  given  two  religious  workers 
to  the  Czecho-Slovaks  in  Russia,  one  young  man,  a 
Seminary  graduate,  is  pastor  of  a  Bohemian  church  in 
Ohio;  two  young  women  are  doing  missionary  work 


138  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

among  their  own  nationality  in  Pennsylvania;  one  young 
woman  is  nursing  in  a  hospital  in  Pittsburgh;  two  are 
teachers  in  the  public  schools. 

Hungarian  Missions.  In  the  coal  fields  of  Virginia 
and  West  Virginia  the  majority  of  the  foreigners  are 
Hungarians.  With  Norton,  Virginia,  as  a  center,  Rev. 
B.  Csutoros  conducts  services  at  twelve  points,  and  at 
these  places  he  has  more  than  two  hundred  members,  in- 
cluding thirty  elders.  Mr.  Csutoros  grew  up  in  the 
Reformed  Church  of  Hungary,  and  is  an  honored  mem- 
ber of  Abingdon  Presbytery.  He  is  preacher,  pastor, 
adviser  of  all  the  Hungarians  of  that  section.  He  is 
greatly  beloved  by  the  people,  and  is  highly  esteemed  by 
the  coal  operators,  who  aid  in  the  work  by  providing 
preaching  places  and  in  other  ways. 

In  all  the  coal  fields  of  these  two  States  there  are  many 
Hungarian  Protestants  without  any  church  privileges. 
In  one  community  a  large  number  signed  a  petition  ask- 
ing for  the  organization  of  a  Presbyterian  church,  but 
there  was  no  minister  to  send.  In  one  year  a  missionary 
from  another  field  made  several  visits  to  this  place,  and 
baptized  twenty-one  children,  and  held  communion  for 
the  believers  in  the  community. 

We  cannot  afford  to  neglect  these  people,  and  leave 
them  without  the  protection  of  the  Church,  when  so 
many  radicals,  socialists,  and  other  opposing  influences 
are  at  work.  The  Hungarians  come  to  America  ex- 
pecting to  become  citizens.  Failure  to  make  Christian 
Americans  out  of  these  ignorant  but  good  Europeans 
may  mean  disaster;  but  faithfulness  in  the  task  of  min- 
istering to  them  in  the  gospel  will  mean  loyal  and  faithful 
citizens  of  the  Republic. 


140  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

Work  for  the  Jews.  This  is  the  latest  undertaking 
of  the  Executive  Committee.  For  years  there  has  been 
a  deepening  conviction  on  the  part  of  many  that  the 
Presbyterian  Church  should  seek  in  a  definite  way  the 
conversion  of  Israel.  During  the  past  fifty  years  one- 
fourth  of  all  the  Jews  in  the  world  have  come  to  the 
United  States.  Investigations  show  that  out  of  a  pop- 
ulation of  more  than  1,750,000  Jews  in  New  York  City, 
between  eighty  and  ninety  per  cent  have  lost  all  connec- 
tion with  the  Synagogue.  In  this  great  multitude  not 
more  than  5,000  have  acknowledged  Jesus  Christ  as  the 
Messiah,  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  The  Home  Missions 
Council  reports  that  eighty  per  cent  of  the  Jews  in  Amer- 
ica are  not  actively  connected  with  the  churches  of  their 
own  faith,  and  fully  half  of  this  eighty  per  cent  are  hos- 
tile to  Christianity. 

A  leading  Jewish  Rabbi  states:  "We  Jews  have  given 
religion  to  the  world,  but  have  little  ourselves.  We 
gave  God  to  the  world,  but  we  have  little  of  God  in  our 
own  hearts.  The  Jews  are  not  studying  their  own  Bible, 
other  people  are  studying  it.  Our  tremendous  indif- 
ference is  our  worst  ailment.  We  are  troubled  with 
agnostic  atheism,  materialism,  and  .Christian  Science.1' 
A  prominent  Christian  Jew,  a  minister  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church,  U.  S.  A.,  says:  "The  Jews  in  this  coun- 
try especially — they  number  about  3,750,000 — are  drift- 
ing rapidly  away  from  the  faith  of  their  fathers  and  are 
either  becoming  anarchistic  socialists,  or  worse  still, 
moral  degenerates.  Some  are  hungering  for  the  Truth, 
for  something  that  will  enable  them  to  live  cleaner  lives, 
but  there  does  not  seem  to  be  a  helping  hand  to  show 
them  the  true  way." 

In   response  to  the  instructions  of  the  General  As- 


OUR  FUTURE  CITIZENS  141 

sembly  that  the  Committee  consider  the  advisability  of 
opening  a  mission  for  the  Jews,  an  invitation  was  accep- 
ted to  unite  with  the  Presbyterian  Church,  U.  S.  A.,  in 
the  support  of  a  Jewish  mission  in  Baltimore,  under  the 
joint  control  of  the  two  Assemblies.  A  suitable  build- 
ing has  been  secured  in  the  midst  of  a  Jewish  settlement 
of  45,000.  A  superintendent  with  an  able  corps  of 
workers  has  been  engaged.  The  work  requires  great 
patience  and  tact.  It  is  looked  upon  by  the  Jews  with 
suspicion.  The  mission  employs  the  ordinary  methods 
— literature,  reading  rooms,  Sunday-school,  children's 
work,  Daily  Vacation  Bible  School.  The  work  has 
passed  the  experimental  stage.  The  Jews  are  being 
reached  with  the  gospel,  and  many  have  accepted  Christ 
and  are  enduring  bitter  persecution  at  the  hands  of 
their  people  on  account  of  their  faith. 

In  the  opinion  of  many  the  godless,  atheistic  Jew  is 
the  most  dangerous  element  in  our  nation's  life.  At 
least  twro  and  a  half  millions  have  broken  with  the  faith 
and  traditions  that  held  them,  and  are  without  God  in 
the  world.  The  ranks  of  the  Bolshevists  are  being  filled 
from  this  class.  It  is  stated  upon  reliable  authority  that 
eighty  per  cent  of  the  leaders  of  the  Bolshevists,  those 
who  were  responsible  for  Russia  deserting  the  Allies  in 
the  great  war  and  who  are  now  in  control  of  Russia's 
affairs,  are  atheistic  Jews  who  were  formerly  res'dents 
of  the  United  States  and  received  their  training  in  the 
schools  of  anarchy  and  infidelity  in  this  country.  From 
Russia,  these  same  Jews,  aided  by  others  in  America, 
are  doing  all  in  their  power  to  blot  out  of  the  human 
mind  all  thought  of  God.  Quoting  the  exact  words  of 
Bolshevist  pamphlets,  widely  circulated,  it  is  said:  "To 


142  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

hell  with  all  churches,  all  synagogues,  all  governments. 
We  are  atheists,  we  are  anarchists." 

To  meet  a  situation  like  this,  certainly  no  true  Chris- 
tian can  do  less  than  his  utmost  through  the  support  of 
the  Church's  Home  Mission  program  to  bring  the  reign 
of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  hearts  of  American  people  every- 
where. 

Returning  Immigrants.  Not  all  foreigners  remain 
in  the  United  States.  Many  after  a  time  return  to  their 
country  and  people.  What  message  shall  they  carry 
from  America?  A  message  of  love,  faith  and  hope;  or 
shall  they,  like  Trotzky  and  those  that  went  with  him, 
go  to  disseminate  anarchy  and  a  bitter  hatred  of  all  re- 
ligions? It  is  said  that  four-fifths  of  all  the  Chinese 
that  have  come  to  America  in  the  past  fifty  years  have 
returned  to  China.  Many  of  them  found  Christ  in 
America  and  have  gone  back  Christians.  Many  have 
gone  back  in  love  with  our  institutions.  Is  it  not  a 
striking  fact  that  the  great  new  Republic  of  China  should 
have  been  born  in  the  province  of  Canton,  the  province 
that  has  given  us  practically  our  entire  Chinese  immi- 
gration? In  our  Chinese  mission  in  New  Orleans  dur- 
ing the  years  of  its  service  hundreds  have  been  brought 
under  Christian  influences,  scores  have  been  reached 
for  Christ,  and  brought  into  the  Church.  Many  have 
returned  to  their  own  land  to  continue  the  good  work 
there.  Italians  from  the  missions  in  Birmingham, 
New  Orleans  and  Kansas  City  have  carried  back  to 
their  native  land  the  message  of  evangelical  Christianity 
and  American  democracy.  Czecho-Slovaks  have  gone 
from  Prince  George  County,  Virginia,  and  Hungarians 
have  gone  from  the  coal  fields  of  Virginia,  and  from  the 
plantations  of  Louisiana.  The  presence  of  the  stranger 


OUR  FUTURE  CITIZENS  143 

and  sojourner  presents  the  greatest  missionary  oppor- 
tunity that  has  come  to  any  people  in  any  age. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  What  is  the  aim  of  Home  Mission  work  among  non-English- 

speaking  peoples? 

2.  Would  it  also  apply  to  all  Home  Mission  work? 

3.  What  proportion  of  our  population  is  foreign? 

4.  Why  is  "foreigner"  an  incorrect  appellation  for  the  immigrant 

to-day? 

5.  What  wonderful  opportunity  does  the  public  school  teacher 

find? 

6.  Contrast  the  old  and  the  new  immigration.     Which  is  re- 

garded as  the  more  desirable? 

7.  What  racial  groups  have  done  most  for  the  advancement  of 

the  world? 

8.  What  elements  make  to-day  a  "day  of  crisis"  for  the  Church 

and  the  nation? 

9.  Tell  where  the  Home  Mission  Committee  is  conducting  work 

for  foreigners. 

10.  Do  you  know  of  any  considerable  group  of  foreigners  in  the 

South  who  are  unreached  by  Home  Mission  work?     Are 
there  any  in  your  community? 

11.  Describe  the  service  rendered  by  the  Italian  Mission  at  Kansas 

City.     To  what  do  you  attribute  its  success? 

12.  Why  is  Jewish  evangelization  so  difficult,  and  so  important? 

13.  Show  the  value  to  Foreign  Missions  of  evangelizing  the  for- 

eigners in  this  country. 

14.  What  is  the  most  impressive  item  in  this  chapter? 


CHAPTER  VI. 
OUR  MEXICAN  NEIGHBORS 


The  total  number  of  Mexicans  in  the  United  States 
is  perhaps  conservatively  estimated  at  a  million  and  a 
half. 

They  reside  chiefly  in  the  Southwest.  Their  lan- 
guage is  Spanish.  Many  of  them  can  neither  speak 
nor  read  English. 

Their  religious  and  moral  conceptions  have  grown 
out  of  an  environment  and  traditions  quite  different 
from  our  own. 

Ignorance,  superstition  and  prejudice  are  obstacles 
to  be  overcome. 

In  the  Southwest  these  new  arrivals  are  doing  almost 
every  conceivable  sort  of  labor. 

They  work  on  the  railroads,  tend  cattle,  care  for 
sheep,  pick  oranges  and  walnuts,  work  with  irrigation, 
do  construction  work,  raise  flowers,  work  in  the  sugar 
beet  fields,  produce  vegetables,  and  in  fact  take  an 
important  part  in  practically  all  of  the  industries  in  our 
southwestern  States. 

The  survey  reports  for  the  southwest  show  that  in 
general  the  living  conditions  of  the  Spanish  population 
are  considerably  lower  than  those  of  the  older  Ameri- 
can stock,  that  their  homes  are  poor,  their  general 
environment  unsanitary,  their  educational  facilities 
scant  and  often  there  is  no  organized  religious  op- 
portunity of  any  sort  for  them. 

It  is  well-nigh  universal  testimony  of  religious 
workers  that  they  are  open  to  the  message  of  the  gospel 
when  properly  approached. 

— American  Survey. 


VI. 

OUR  MEXICAN  NEIGHBORS 

A  distance  of  less  than  a  mile  measures  trie  difference 
between  the  Church's  Foreign  and  Home  Missionary 
labors  for  the  evangelization  of  our  Mexican  neighbors. 
For  1,833  miles  the  two  fields  overlap,  being  separated 
by  a  river  and  an  imaginary  line.  For  one-half  of  this 
distance  the  Rio  Grande  flows  between  Texas  and 
Mexico.  From  El  Paso,  Texas,  to  San  Diego,  California, 
the  boundary  through  the  sand  and  cactus  is  marked  by 
a  barbed  wire  fence.  There  is  no  essential  difference 
between  the  need  of  the  Mexican  people  residing  in 
either  country.  Racial  characteristics  and  Romanism 
produce  similar  results  wherever  found,  and  the  same 
problems  are  presented  in  either  case. 

As  there  are  different  grades  and  classes  among  all 
people,  so  are  there  among  the  Mexicans.  There  are  a 
few  prominent  in  financial  and  commercial  affairs, 
bankers  and  business  men;  a  few  with  high  culture,  who 
have  surrounded  themselves  with  the  refinements  of  art, 
the  comforts  and  appointments  of  the  best  in  modern 
civilization.  These  are,  however,  the  exceptional  and 
there  remains  the  other  ninety  per  cent  who  have  never 
had  a  chance.  These  have  suffered  many  things  at  the 
hands  of  many  physicians.  They  have  been  the  victims 
of  the  plundering  avariciousness  of  crooks  for  four  hun- 
dred years.  They  are  in  the  condition  of  the  man  on  the 
Jericho  road,  and  there  is  need  for  a  good  Samaritan. 

Who  is  This  People?  They  are  said  to  be  the  de- 
scendants of  the  best  civilization  of  ancient  America 


148  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

and  of  the  earliest  civilization  of  modern  America.  The 
Mexicans  are  an  interesting  race,  needing  only  to  be 
known  to  be  admired  for  many  noble  qualities.  Pos- 
sessing an  amiable  and  courteous  disposition  they  have 
been  characterized  as  "ignorant  as  slaves  and  more  cour- 
teous than  kings,  poor  as  Lazarus  and  more  hospitable 
than  Croesus."  A  study  of  their  national  history  and 
their  prolonged  struggle  for  liberty  reveals  them  as  a 
people  of  heroic  blood. 

Dr.  J.  W.  Skinner,  President  of  Texas-Mexican  In- 
dustrial Institute,  Kingsville,  Texas,  has  this  to  say 
about  them: 


"The  Mexicans  have  a  history  dating  back  into  the 
shadows  of  the  unrecorded  and  unknown.  Three  re- 
lated tribes  are  pre-eminent  in  the  earlier  records — the 
Chichimecas,  the  Toltecas,  and  the  Axtecas  or  Mexicans. 
The  latter  were  the  founders  of  the  City  of  Mexico  in 
about  the  year  1325.  These  tribes  possessed  a  care- 
fully wrought  out  system  of  government,  and  a  religion 
in  which  sacrifice  was  the  key-stone.  They  were  expert 
irrigation  engineers  and  skillful  agriculturists,  peaceful 
and  pastoral  in  their  disposition.  They  attained  a  pe- 
culiar skill  in  artistic  and  decorative  lines,  and  no  small 
ability  in  architecture. 

"From  these  original  tribes,  with  a  slight  intermingling 
of  alien  blood,  have  descended  more  than  eighty  per  cent 
of  present  day  Mexicans.  This  peace-loving,  intensely 
religious,  artistically-temperamented,  unsophisticated 
people  were  subjugated  but  never  conquered  by  a  band 
of  filisbustering  Spaniards  under  Cortez  in  1519.  The 
domineering  foreigners  imposed  upon  this  gentle  people 
with  an  iron  hand  the  Spanish  language  and  the  Spanish 
form  of  religion.  But  the  wreckers  of  the  nation  reck- 
oned not  with  the  slumbering  spirit  of  a  people  who  for 
centuries  had  breathed  the  air  of  freedom.  The  bondage 


OUR  MEXICAN  NEIGHBORS  149 

of  the  alien  over-lord  was  broken,  but  his  language  and 
his  form  of  religion  remained. 

"In  some  quarters  the  impression  prevails  that  the 
subjugation  of  Mexico  by  Cortez  in  some  mysterious 
metamorphosis  changed  the  people  into  Spaniards  and 
that  they  are  to  be  thought  of  as  Spanish  people.  Noth- 
ing could  be  more  erroneous,  though  he  speaks  the  Span- 
ish language.  One  of  the  greatest  insults  that  can  be 
offered  a  Mexican  is  to  be  called  a  Spaniard,  or  to  speak 
of  his  people  as  Spanish.  He  is,  and  has  a  right  to  be 
called  a  Mexican.  They  are  people  of  a  wonderful 
past,  who  cling  to  its  memories  with  great  tenacity.  In 
some  way,  perhaps  after  the  methods  of  the  border  min- 
strels of  Scotland,  they  have  kept  alive  and  transmitted 
to  their  children,  a  mingling  of  facts  and  fancies  from 
a  past  golden  day.  Their  history  holds  a  wealth  of 
romance  and  realism,  of  tragedy  and  comedy,  of  great 
dreamers  and  great  heroes,  of  human  struggle,  suffering 
and  victory,  rich  as  their  fabled  mines  of  precious  ores. 

"The  first  school  on  the  Western  hemisphere  was  es- 
tablished by  followers  of  Cortez  with  Mexican  pupils 
in  1520 — one  hundred  years  before  the  pilgrims  landed 
at  Plymouth  Rock.  The  first  printing  in  America  was 
done  in  Mexico  City  in  1619,  about  the  date  of  the  found- 
ing of  Jamestown,  Virginia.  Fruit  is  expected  from 
trees  of  fruit-bearing  age.  About  ten  per  cent  of  the 
Mexican  people  are  well  educated  and  cultured,  another 
ten  per  cent  has  picked  up  a  smattering  of  primary  cul- 
ture, and  the  remaining  eighty  per  cent  have  not  the 
ability  to  read  or  write.  It  appears  that  while  they 
have  been  engaged  in  the  herculean  task  of  breaking  an 
alien  bondage,  and  its  heritage  of  stagnation,  the  great 
trade  winds  of  civilization  have  largely  swept  them  by. 
With  a  hundred  years  the  start  of  neighbors  who  had 
poorer  environment,  it  is  natural  to  ask  why  national 
progress  and  development  has  lagged  so  far  behind. 
Education  and  Christian  culture  are  a  sure  test  of  na- 
tional progress.  The  Spanish  system  of  education  was 
limited  to  the  children  of  a  few  selected  families,  and  the 


150  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

Spanish  brand  of  religion  withheld  the  Bible  from  the 
people,  and  substituted  empty  forms  for  life  and  power. 
The  Spanish  theory  of  education  and  the  Spanish  type 
of  religion  have  utterly  failed  in  Mexico." 

All  Mexicans  Not  Foreigners.  It  is  incorrect  to 
think  of  all  Mexicans  as  immigrants.  Texas  and  the 
southwest  portion  of  the  United  States  were  originally 
a  part  of  Mexico.  When  this  great  territory  was  an- 
nexed to  the  United  States,  the  Mexican  residents  in 
those  states  became  citizens  of  our  country.  It  is  their 
native  land.  Many  never  came  from  Mexico.  They 
were  here  when  the  Americans  came.  Instead  of  being 
foreigners,  they  look  upon  Americans  as  intruders 
and  as  alien  people.  In  many  families  the  land  grants 
are  shown  which  were  given  by  Spanish  kings  ceding  the 
land  to  them  and  their  heirs.  These  are  the  first  fami- 
lies of  the  Southwest.  The  life  and  civilization  they  de- 
veloped in  the  early  days  has  left  its  impress  on  all  this 
great  region,  and  is  seen  in  the  language,  the  religion, 
and  many  of  the  social  customs. 


A  MEXICAN  IIOMK 


OUR  MEXICAN  NEIGHBORS  151 

Mexican  Immigration.  It  is  those  who  have  come 
across  the  border  since  the  annexation  that  are  classified 
as  immigrants.  Some  authorities  say  that  one-tenth  of 
the  entire  Mexican  nation  has  come  to  the  United  States 
in  the  past  twenty  years.  While  there  has  always  been 
an  emigration  of  Mexicans  to  the  United  States,  it  is 
only  in  recent  years  that  they  have  come  in  sufficient 
numbers  to  attract  particular  notice.  The  political 
overturnings  that  have  occurred  in  such  rapid  succession 
in  that  turbulent  country  have  sent  thousands  across 
the  border.  Some  are  political  refugees,  but  the  ma- 
jority are  simple  peons  who  have  found  conditions 
intolerable  in  Mexico,  and  have  come  with  their  fami- 
lies, having  been  attracted  by  the  superior  economic  and 
educational  opportunity  that  the  United  States  seemed 
to  offer.  The  World  War  and  the  great  demand  for 
labor  in  the  United  States  brought  many  more  thous- 
ands. 

In  many  places  in  Texas  the  Mexican  has  entirely  dis- 
placed the  Negro  in  many  fields  of  labor.  This  state 
is  now  at  the  very  head  in  the  procession  of  agricultural 
states,  and  the  one  thing  that  has  made  the  rapid  ad- 
vance possible  has  been  the  labor  supply.  They  can 
raise  cotton,  corn,  fruits,  and  vegetables.  Mexican  cow- 
boys care  for  thousands  of  cattle,  and  the  Mexican  herd- 
ers tend  millions  of  sheep.  The  loneliness  of  these 
occupations  has  no  terror  for  the  Mexican.  They  work 
on  the  railroad  and  in  the  shops,  work  with  irrigation 
and  do  construction  work,  and  take  part  in  practically 
all  the  industries  of  the  western  states.  The  universal 
testimony  is  that  the  Mexican  is  a  good,  faithful  worker, 
always  quiet  and  orderly,  superior  in  every  way  to  the 
Negro.  Mr.  J.  S.  Stowell  says: 


OUR  MEXICAN  NEIGHBORS  153 

"The  Mexican  who  comes  across  the  international 
line  to  work  in  the  United  States  does  not,  however,  come 
alone.  He  brings  his  wife  and  family  with  him.  This 
is  true  Mexican  custom,  for  the  Mexican  has  been  accus- 
tomed to  take  his  women  folks  along  to  provide  food, 
even  when  he  has  been  serving  in  the  army.  It  is  quite 
different  from  the  customs  of  immigrants  from  many 
other  countries.  Possibly  the  nearness  of  Mexico  to  the 
United  States  and  the  ease  with  which  the  journey  across 
the  line  can  be  made  have  something  to  do  with  the  mat- 
ter. On  a  recent  visit  to  an  immigration  office  on  the 
border,  a  card  picked  at  random  from  the  files  showed 
that  the  Mexican  whose  record  it  contained  had  brought 
with  him  a  wife  and  nine  children  into  the  United  States. 
This  instance  is  more  or  less  typical,  for  the  Mexican 
families  are  large.  A  group  of  Mexican  laborers,  there- 
fore, means  at  once  a  new  Mexican  settlement  in  the 
United  States  or  an  old  one  enlarged,  and  since  an  over- 
whelming proportion  of  the  Mexicans  who  come  into 
the  country  are  very  poor  various  social  problems  are 
more  or  less  inevitable  in  every  Mexican  colony.  When 
the  average  Mexican  immigrant  arrives  he  brings  little 
or  nothing  with  him  except  the  clothes  on  his  back,  yet 
what  he  brings  represents  his  entire  earthly  posses- 
sions."* 

It  is  estimated  that  there  are  1,750,000  Mexicans  in 
the  United  States.  Texas  has  the  largest  number  of 
any  state,  where  there  are  from  a  half  million  to  three- 
quarters  of  a  million.  They  are  found  not  only  on  the 
border  from  Brownsville  to  San  Diego,  but  by  the  thous- 
ands in  Colorado,  Oklahoma  and  other  states  both  East 
and  West.  The  largest  Mexican  colony  in  any  city  is 
in  San  Antonio,  Texas,  which  has  a  Mexican  population 
of  50,000;  and  the  second  largest  colony  is  in  El  Paso, 


*"The  Near  Side  of  the  Mexican  Question." 


154  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

Texas,  where  there  are  45,000.  Within  a  margin  of 
sixty  miles  in  width,  on  the  Texas  side  of  the  Rio  Grande 
it  is  estimated  that  there  are  from  ten  to  twenty  Mexi- 
cans for  every  American.  Leaving  out  the  larger  towns, 
the  proportion  would  perhaps  he  greater.  There  are 
many  towns  where  the  English  language  is  rarely  spoken, 
and  where  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  and  Spanish 
language  and  Mexican  customs  predominate.  In  the. 
city  of  Laredo,  for  example,  half  of  the  streets  are  named 
for  Mexican  heroes,  while  the  avenues  are  named  in 
honor  of  the  Catholic  saints. 

Product  of  Environment.  There,  is  practically  no 
difference  between  the  Mexicans  of  the  United  States 
and  of  Mexico.  To  understand  the  conditions  of  the 
Mexicans  in  the  United  States,  it  is  necessary  to  under- 
stand the  environment  out  of  which  they  have  come. 
They  are  in  Texas  just  what  they  were  in  Mexico.  The 
Spanish  conquest  of  Mexico  was  for  the  purpose  of  ex- 
tending the  authority  of  the  Catholic  Church  quite  as 
much  as  to  extend  the  political  domination  of  Spain. 
Up  until  1867  Catholicism  had  no  competition  from 
Protestant  Christianity. 

"In  the  early  days  the  natives  were  'converted*  to 
Christianity  at  the  rate  of  thousands  per  day  practi- 
cally at  the  point  of  the  gun.  It  was  inevitable  that  this 
acceptance  of  Christianity  could  be  only  a  formal  mat- 
ter. The  Cross  was  substituted  for  or  became  an  affix 
to  some  pagan  ceremony.  Even  today  in  our  Southwest 
the  Cross  is  an  ever-present  wayside  decoration  in  scores 
of  communities  where  vital  Christianity  is  unknown. 
Heathen  rites  and  Christian  ceremonies  became  merged 
in  something  which  was  partly  Chriatian  in  nomencla- 
ture and  pagan  in  spirit  and  reality.  Such  wholesale 
extension  of  formal  Christianity  could  result  in  nothing 


OUR  MEXICAN  NEIGHBORS  155 

else.  Christianity  became  a  matter  of  form  and  cere- 
mony, and  Christianity  as  a  way  of  life  received  little 
attention. 

"Religion  and  morality  either  became  entirely  di- 
vorced or  religion  became  a  convenient  device  for  mak- 
ing immorality  safe  and  innocuous.  The  'Bull  of  Com- 
position' is  said  to  have  permitted  the  priests  to  relieve 
persons  who  stole  property  from  the  obligation  of  mak- 
ing restitution,  provided  that  a  certain  sum,  based  on 
the  value  of  the  stolen  goods,  was  paid  to  the  priest.  It 
was  understood,  however,  that  the  same  person  could 
not  purchase  more  than  fifty  of  such  licenses  in  one  year. 
As  late  as  1914  John  Wesley  Butler  writes  of  Mexico, 
'Indulgences  are  still  sold  publicly.' 

"In  1865  Abbe  Emanuel  Domenech  came  to  Mexico 
as  Chaplain  of  the  French  troops.  Later  he  was  asked 
by  the  Vatican  to  make  a  tour  of  the  country  and  report 
upon  the  'moral  and  religious  conditions  of  the  clergy 
and  Church.'  The  following  is  quoted  by  John  Wesley 
Butler  from  Abbe  Domenech's  report:  'Mexican  faith  is 
a  dead  faith.  The  abuse  of  external  ceremonies,  the 
facility  of  reconciling  God,  the  abuse  of  internal  exer- 
cises of  piety,  have  killed  the  faith  in  Mexico 

The  idolatrous  character  of  Mexican  Catholicism  is  a 

fact  well  known  to  all  travelers The  mysteries 

of  the  Middle  Ages  are  utterly  outdone  by  the  burlesque 

ceremonies  of  the  Mexicans The  Mexican  is 

not  a  Catholic.  He  is  simply  a  Christian  because  he 
has  been  baptized.  I  speak  of  the  masses  and  not  of 

the  numerous  exceptions  to  be  found The 

clergy  carry  their  love  of  the  family  to  that  of  paternity. 
In  my  travels  in  the  interior  of  Mexico,  many  pastors 
have  refused  me  hospitality  in  order  to  prevent  my  seeing 
their  nieces  and  cousins  and  their  children.'  It  should 
be  remembered  that  these  are  the  words  of  a  Roman 
Catholic  who  has  endeavored  to  understand  the  actual 
situation  in  Mexico."* 


""The  Near  Side  of  the  Mexican  Question." 


156  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

Protestant  Opportunity.  It  is  from  such  environ- 
ment that  the  Mexicans  have  come.  The  Catholic 
Church  for  four  hundred  years  had  absolute  sway  over 
their  mental,  moral  and  material  welfare,  and  their 
present  condition  is  the  result  of  ignorance,  poverty  and 
religious  oppression.  While  they  are  nominally  Roman 
Catholic,  many  thousands  are  in  revolt  against  the  only 
Church  of  which  they  know  anything.  It  is  said  that 
forty  per  cent  of  the  Mexican  immigrants  are  lost  to  the 
Catholic  Church.  A  large  number  of  the  men  are  Free 
Thinkers,  and  arc  among  the  bitterest  enemies  of  Rome. 
Many  of  the  women  have  broken  with  their  traditional 
faith,  and  have  lapsed  into  darkness  and  hopeless  infi- 
delity. The  only  religion  they  have  ever  known  is  a  re- 
ligion of  rite  and  ritual,  form  and  ceremony.  Their 
Christ  is  a  dead  Christ.  Their  lives  have  been  barren 
of  any  true  fellowship  with  the  living  God.  Their  spir- 
itual hunger  and  religious  needs  give  the  Protestant 
Church  a  supreme  opportunity  to  teach  them  of  a  loving 
heavenly  Father,  and  give  them  a  gospel  of  love  and  faith. 
The  eagerness  with  which  many  of  them  respond  to  the 
gospel  appeal  is  one  of  the  most  encouraging  things  in 
our  Mexican  mission  work. 

Providential  Beginnings.  The  beginning  of  our 
Home  Mission  work  among  the  Mexicans  was  clearly  the 
Lord's  doing,  and  this  undertaking  of  the  Church  has 
been  marked  by  many  unmistakable  evidences  of  His 
favor.  From  its  inception  there  seem  to  have  been  raised 
up  specially  prepared  leaders  just  at  the  time  they  were 
particularly  needed.  Our  Mexican  mission  had  its  ori- 
gin in  an  humble  Mexican  Christian  named  Jose  Maria 
Botello,  who  had  been  converted  by  reading  a  religious 
tract.  He  united  with  the  Brownsville  Mexican  church, 


OUR  MEXICAN  NEIGHBORS  157 

which  was  a  part  of  the  work  of  the  Foreign  Mission 
Committee,  and  later  was  made  an  elder.  In  1883 
Senor  Botello  removed  from  Brownsville  to  San  Marcos, 
Texas,  in  the  interior  of  the  State.  Through  his  earnest 
efforts  ten  Mexicans  were  converted.  They  were  bap- 
tized and  received  into  the  membership  of  the  San  Mar- 
cos Presbyterian  Church.  In  1887  our  first  Mexican 
Presbyterian  Church  was  organized  at  San  Marcos  with 
twenty-six  members.  On  the  day  that  this  church  was 
organized  Rev.  W.  S.  Scott,  who  was  born  of  Scotch 
parents  in  Mexico  and  acquainted  with  Spanish  from 
his  infancy,  was  taken  under  care  of  Western  Texas 
Presbytery  as  a  candidate  for  the  ministry.  In  April, 
1892,  Mr.  Scott  was  ordained  as  evangelist  to  the  Mexi- 
cans in  Texas,  and  since  that  day  has  given  his  entire 
time  to  his  chosen  people,  always  pushing  forward  into 
new  fields  where  no  other  church  is  at  work. 

In  1892  God  sent  to  the  Mexican  Mission  a  timely 
gift  in  the  person  of  Dr.  H.  B.  Pratt,  formerly  a  mission- 
ary of  our  Church  at  Barranquilla,  South  America,  and 
who  gave  to  the  Spanish-speaking  people  what  is  ac- 
knowledged to  be  the  best  translation  of  the  Bible  in 
that  language.  While  Dr.  Pratt  rendered  valuable 
assistance  as  evangelist  and  pastor,  his  greatest  service 
was  in  training  several  young  M.exicans  for  the  ministry, 
who  were  needed  for  waiting  fields  and  who  ever  since 
have  been  great  powers  for  good  among  their  own 
people.  In  1899  the  missionary  force  was  increased  by 
the  coming  of  Rev.  and  Mrs.  R.  D.  Campbell,  who  had 
been  missionaries  to  Mexito,  and  knew  the  language, 
the  people  and  the  problems.  In  1907  Rev.  and  Mrs. 
C.  R.  Womeldorf,  formerly  of  our  Brazil  Mission,  were 
added  to  the  list  of  workers.  For  a  time  they  were 


158  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

jointly  supported  by  the  Home  and  Foreign  Mission 
Committees,  another  illustration  of  the  oneness  of  the 
endeavor  of  the  Church  to  proclaim  liberty  to  a  gospel- 
needy  people  in  whatever  country  they  chance  to  live. 
In  1912  when  the  work  had  progressed  to  the  point 
where  a  school  for  Mexican  boys  was  imperatively 
needed,  it  seemed  a  part  of  God's  providence  that  Dr. 
and  Mrs.  J.  W.  Skinner  were  sent  to  lead  this  important 
undertaking.  From  the  very  beginning  of  our  Mexican 
work  until  the  present  time  it  has  been  blessed  in  the 
character  of  the  workers  that  have  come  to  it  in  the  time 
wThen  their  services  were  especially  needed.  The  Mex- 
ican pastors  are  without  exception  men  of  character  and 
devotion.  It  is  doubtful  if  any  mission  field  of  our 
Church  is  served  by  more  capable  and  consecrated 
workers. 

Success  of  the  Work.  Beginning  in  1887  with  one 
small  church  of  twenty-six  members,  there  are  now 
twenty  workers  serving  twenty-six  organized  churches 
and  twenty-six  other  preaching  points,  with  a  present 
membership  of  more  than  two  thousand.  All  the  Pro- 
testant Churches  thus  far  have  enrolled  only  about 
10,000  members  among  the  more  than  1,750, (100  Mexi- 
cans in  this  country.  Our  Church,  with  its  small  force 
and  inadequate  equipment,  has  received  one-fifth  of  the 
total.  The  statistics  do  not  tell  the  whole  story.  During 
the  thirty  years  fully  as  many  as  are  at  present  on  our 
rolls  have  been  converted  in  our  missions  and  returned 
to  carry  the  gospel  to  their  o\\  n  people  and  contribute 
to  the  evangelization  of  their  own  country.  The  be- 
ginning of  the  mission  at  Linares,  Mexico,  was  due  to 
the  return  of  a  converted  Mexican  from  Texas.  Many 
have  moved  to  other  comn  unities  in  the  Southwest 


OUR  MEXICAN  NEIGHBORS  159 

and  united  with  other  Churches.     To  quote  again  from 
Dr.  Skinner: 

"It  is  always  'moving  day'  with  many  Mexicans.  They 
are  constantly  seeking  a  better  place.  This  is  largely 
due  to  their  occupations.  Few  are  either  land  or  home 
owners.  Many  ars  tenant  farmers.  Some  are  riders  on 
the  cattle  ranges.  Some  are  wood  choppers  and  land 
clearers.  Others  are  in  the  railroad  construction  camps, 
or  with  the  section  gangs.  Some  are  in  the  sulphur 
mines  and  rice  fields;  some  are  in  the  swampy  lumber 
camps;  while  each  summer  brings  its  moving  army  of 
cotton  pickers.  The  latter  often  enter  the  cotton  fields 
of  the  Rio  Grande  Valley  in  June  and  trek  northward  as 
the  cotton  opens,  closing  the  cotton  picking  in  Decem- 
ber. And  then  begins  the  slow,  and  seemingly  enjoyed, 
return,  with  a  little  covered  wagon,  two  or  three  burros, 
the  father  and  children  walking,  the  mother  and  babies 
in  the  wagon. 

"The  record  of  the  evangelistic  work  is  such  as  to  cause 
a  thrill  of  justifiable  pride.  It  is  a  story  of  heroism, 
sacrifice  and  achievement.  It  is  little  known  to  the 
Church  because  of  the  modesty  and  self-effacement  of 
those  engaged  in  it.  They  have  published  a  few  finan- 
cial and  statistical  tables  but  have  left  untold  the  story 
of  the  'blazed  trail,'  the  weariness  and  loneliness  of  the 
way,  the  dinnerless  days,  the  sleepless  nights  because 
the  dirt  was  a  hard  bed  and  other  small  annoyances. 
There  is  the  joy  of  a  hew  company  of  worshippers  gath- 
ered in  thirty  days  and  then  a  heartache  the  next  month 
to  find  that  all  had  'folded  their  tents  like  the  Arab  and 
as  silently  stolen  away.'  Often  there  is  the  after-dis- 
covery that  here  and  there  one  who  had  heard,  remem- 
bered the  message  and  was  telling  'the  old,  old  story,' 
to  a  little  group  gathered  around  a  camp  fire  near  a 
cotton  field,  and  that  another  was  using  the  big  room  in 
the  three-room  cottage  as  a  meeting  house  for  song  and 
prayer.  The  record  of  the  evangelistic  work  among 
these  migratory  people  has  been  a  literal  fulfilment  of 


160 


UNFINISHED  TASKS 


the  command,  'In  the  morning  sow  thy  seed  and  in  the 
evening  withhold  not  thy  hand,  for  thou  knowest  not 
whether  shall  prosper  either  this  or  that,  or  whether 
they  both  shall  be  alike  good.'  ' 

The  Annual  Camp  Meeting.  One  of  the  great 
evangelistic  agencies  in  the  work  for  the  Mexicans  is  the 
Camp  Meeting.  Two  of  these  are  held  in  the  Texas  field. 
In  August  just  before  cotton  picking  time  the  members 
and  families  of  the  various  churches  gather  for  the  an- 
nual Camp  Meeting,  under  the  trees  on  the  banks  of 
some  river.  The  meetings  continue  for  a  week  with  four 
services  a  day.  Surrounding  the  big  tent  where  the 
services  are  held  there  are  from  fifty  to  seventy-five 
camps,  with  two  to  four  families  each.  The  daily  aver- 
age attendance  is  over  three  hundred,  and  on  Sundays 
as  many  as  a  thousand  people  are  at  the  services.  The 
preaching  is  done  by  the  Mexican  pastors  and  evange- 
lists, frequently  assisted  by  missionaries  and  well  known 


A  MEXICAN  CAMP  MEETING 


OUR  MEXICAN  NEIGHBORS  161 

ministers  from  Mexico.  Many  are  reached  who  other- 
wise would  never  hear  the  gospel.  There  are  often  as 
many  as  fifty  conversions.  Some  of  our  best  members 
have  been  received  at  these  meetings.  It  is  more  than 
a  special  evangelistic  effort.  The  Camp  Meeting  is  also 
a  training  school  for  the  Mexican  churches.  A  day  is 
given  to  the  Young  People,  and  a  day  to  the  Sunday- 
school,  and  a  day  to  the  Woman's  Work.  The  Camp 
Meeting  is  the  annual  get-together  time  for  the  Mexican 
churches.  It  accomplishes  much  in  a  social  way  and 
helps  create  the  spirit  of  brotherhood  among  the  Mexi- 
can Christians.  It  is  the  outstanding  event  of  the  Mexi- 
can Church  year. 

Mexican  Christians.  The  important  factor  in  de- 
termining the  success  of  missionary  effort  among  any 
people  is  the  spiritual  results.  A  striking  illustration 
of  the  earnestness  and  devotion  of  the  Mexican  Chris- 
tians is  the  fact  that  nearly  every  congregation  has  its 
own  house  of  worship,  the  people  themselves  out  of  their 
poverty  giving  the  means  and  the  labor  to  make  it  pos- 
sible. Few  of  us,  no  matter  how  poor  we  may  be,  know 
poverty  as  the  Mexicans  know  it.  Except  the  city 
missions,  where  buildings  are  necessarily  more  costly, 
very  little  assistance  has  been  given  by  the  Assembly's 
Committee  to  the  Mexican  congregations  for  church 
buildings.  Eleven  churches  and  two  manses  in  our 
Mexican  work  have  been  completed  by  the  sacrifice  and 
service  of  the  members  themselves.  This  is  a  feature 
of  our  Mexican  work  that  makes  it  unique  in  work  for 
foreigners.  There  is  nothing  like  it  in  the  work  of  any 
other  denomination.  Services  are  held  every  Sabbath 
in  every  church,  and  in  the  absence  of  pastor  or  evange- 
list, usually  they  are  conducted  by  an  elder.  They 


162 


UNFINISHED  TASKS 


regularly  have  family  worship  in  their  homes,  and  we 
have  not  a  Mexican  elder  who  will  not  pray  in  public. 

There  are  some  honored  names  among  our  Mexican 
members  which  show  that  there  is  an  "aristocracy  of 
faith"  in  this  race.  In  1895  Margarito  Rodriguez  united 
with  the  Presbyterian  Church  upon  profession  of  faith. 
Five  years  later  he  was  made  an  elder.  On  the  day  he 
was  ordained,  his  wife  and  several  of  his  relatives  made 
a  profession  of  their  faith  and  united  with  the  Church. 
When  the  church  was  built  he  gave  liberally  of  his  means 
and  labor.  Through  all  the  years  from  the  day  he  pro- 
fessed his  faith  he  did  much  by  his  active  labors  and  ex- 
emplary conduct  to  develop  the  work  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  for  the  Mexicans  throughout  that  part  of  the 
state.  He  made  frequent  trips  in  his  own  conveyance  at 


A  CHRISTIAN  MEXICAN  FAMILY 


OUR  MEXICAN  NEIGHBORS  163 

his  own  expense  to  mission  churches  seventy-five  miles 
distant  to  help  in  the  work  and  encourage  the  believers. 
As  a  result  of  his  exemplary  life  and  earnest  labors  forty 
of  his  adult  relatives  were  won  to  Christ  and  the  Church. 
Not  the  least  achievement  of  his  splendid  Christian  ca- 
reer was  the  rearing  of  his  own  family.     One  of  his  sons 
is  an  honored  minister  of  our  Church,  having  taken  the 
full  course  in  Austin  Theological  Seminary.     Another 
son   is  a   promising  student   in  Austin   College.     One 
daughter  is  the  wife  of  an  honored  Presbyterian  minister 
and  another  daughter  is  the  wife  of  a  deacon.     One  son 
is  an  elder,  and  another  son  is  a  deacon  in  the  same 
church.     While    exceptional    in    some    respects    Senor 
Rodriquez  is  a  typical  Mexican  Presbyterian  elder.    We 
have  many  such  in  our  Mexican  Presbyterian  churches. 
It  has  been  due  as  much  to  them  as  to  our  ministers 
that  our  work  has  made  the  progress  it  has.     With  such 
godly  men   for  officers,  with  well   prepared   ministers 
coming  from  the  Seminary  at  Austin,  with  loyalty  to  the 
great  doctrines  of  grace  and  the  blessing  of  God,  what 
may  we  not  expect  of  our  Mexican  churches  in  another 
decade?     Is  it  too  much  to  hope  that  we  will  have  a 
Texas-Mexican  Synod,  which  will  be  the  pride  and  joy 
of  the  whole  Church? 

Need  for  More  Aggressive  Effort.  With  all  that 
has  been  done  \he  Protestant  Church  has  not  touched 
the  fringe  of  need.  Not  more  than  one  in  one  hundred 
is  connected  with  any  evangelical  Church.  The  other 
ninety-nine  must  be  reached.  There  are  between  500,- 
000  and  750,000  of  these  people  in  Texas.  There  are 
many  in  Oklahoma,  New  Mexico,  Arkansas,  and  Louis- 
iana. It  is  said  that  there  are  at  least  one  thousand 
Mexican  communities  in  Texas  along  the  railroads  and 


164  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

far  back  on  the  ranches  where  there  is  no  Protestant 
work.  A  Christian  woman  residing  in  a  village  on  the 
Mexican  border,  asking  for  a  church  and  a  minister, 
says  that  she  and  her  husband  are  the  only  Americans 
and  Protestants  in  a  community  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
Mexican  families;  there  is  no  school,  no  church,  and  no 
religious  work  being  done  by  any  denomination  except 
three  or  four  visits  per  year  from  an  illiterate  Mexican 
priest.  This  village  is  fifty  miles  from  the  nearest  rail- 
road and  one  hundred  miles  from  the  nearest  church  of 
our  denomination.  The  conditions  in  this  community 
can  be  duplicated  in  hundreds  of  places  in  Texas,  and 
are  an  illustration  of  the  waiting  fields  calling  for  min- 
isters and  workers  that  must  be  supplied. 

Educational  Work.  In  every  mission  field  the  evan- 
gelistic work  upens  the  doors  and  then  the  call  becomes 
insistent  for  education.  The  Presbyterian  Church  has 
always  stood  for  education,  as  well  as  for  evangelism  in 
its  work,  and  the  teacher  and  the  school  have  gone  hand 
in  hand  with  the  Church  and  the  evangelist.  Our  first 
educational  work  for  the  Mexicans  was  that  done  by 
Dr.  H.  B.  Pratt,  who  secured  three  young  men  and  took 
them  into  his  own  home  to  train  them  for  the  gospel 
ministry.  From  that  beginning  can  be  traced  the  grow- 
ing need  of  the  Mexican  Church  for  a  native  leadership, 
and  the  intense  desire  of  the  Mexican  people  for  a  Chris- 
tian industrial  training  for  their  children  that  they  might 
be  better  fitted  for  their  place  in  life. 

Texas-Mexican  Industrial  Institute.  The  Church 
has  undertaken  to  meet  this  need  of  the  Mexican  people 
at  the  Industrial  Institute,  Kingsville,  Texas.  Under 
the  leadership  of  Dr.  J.  W.  Skinner  this  Christian  school 
is  rapidly  coming  to  a  position  of  great  power  and  influ- 


OUR  MEXICAN  NEIGHBORS 


165 


ence  among  the  Mexicans,  not  only  as  an  evangelistic 
agency,  but  in  preparing  Christian  leaders  and  teachers. 
The  aim  of  this  school  is  to  give  worthy  Mexican  boys 
a  thorough  training  in  industry  and  agriculture,  and 
equip  them  in  mind  and  heart  to  teach  their  own  chil- 
dren in  the  home,  in  the  public  school,  and  enable  them 
to  preach  Christ  to  their  own  people.  This  school  is 
located  on  a  great  farm  of  669  acres,  and  is  conducted 
on  the  plan  of  half  day  work  and  half  day  study.  It 
was  begun  in  1912  with  fifty  students.  The  plant  when 
completed  will  provide  for  two  hundred  boys.  The 
farm,  the  stock  raising  the  dairy,  and  the  shop  afford 
opportunity  for  practical  instruction  for  the  students  and 


TEACHERS'  TRAINING  CLASS,  AUSTIN,  TEXAS 


166  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

the  product  of  their  labors  contributes  to  the  support 
of  the  school. 

Experience  proves  Mexican  boys  to  be  efficient  and 
capable  when  given  a  chance.  These  boys  come  from 
homes  of  ignorance  and  poverty.  They  are  receiving 
the  best  possible  training  by  competent  Christian  teach- 
ers. This  school  has  little  material  equipment  for  its 
work,  but  it  has  a  wealth  of  mind  and  heart  that  is  price- 
less and  measureless.  It  has  teachers  who  are  filled 
with  a  genuine  missionary  spirit  and  who  can  see  the 
possibilities  locked  up  in  their  pupils,  and  who  are  able 
to  inspire  them  to  be  something  and  do  something  worth 
while.  Some  of  the  boys  having  received  their  start  here 
will  go  to  other  schools  for  further  training  and  will  be 
fitted  to  serve  their  people  as  teachers,  editors,  physi- 
cians, ministers,  and  in  other  places  of  leadership  and 
responsibility.  One  of  the  students  of  this  school  won 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania  scholarship  at  Mexico 
City.  The  University  of  Mexico  City  has  offered  a  po- 
sition to  another  student  who  spent  three  years  here  and 
then  graduated  at  Austin  College.  This  mission  school 
took  these  boys  out  of  their  surroundings,  gave  them  a 
start  and  an  ambition  to  go  forward,  and  put  them  on 
the  way  to  useful  careers.  It  is  impossible  to  estimate 
the  power  for  good  or  for  evil  of  one  Mexican  boy. 

"In  1877,  in  Central  Mexico,  there  was  born  a  lad  of 
Indian  blood,  Doroteo  Arango,  whom  friendship  seems 
to  have  passed  by.  Instead  his  youth  was  embittered 
by  the  murder  of  an  official  who  had  outraged  his  sister. 
He  became  an  outlaw  and  took  the  name  of  Villa.  And 
for  years  he  has  been  a  menace  not  only  in  Mexico,  but 
to  the  peace  of  all  America  as  well.  In  1806,  there  was 
born  in  Southern  Mexico  another  lad  of  Indian  blood, 


OUR  MEXICAN  NEIGHBORS  167 

Benito  Jaurez.  Left  an  orphan  at  the  age  of  four,  he 
found  a  friend  in  a  charitable  merchant,  who  fostered 
and  educated  him.  And  rich  dividends  did  the  mer- 
chant's friendly  care  return.  For  Jaurez,  after  a  term 
as  Governor  of  his  native  State,  Oaxaca,  left  it  the  most 
prosperous  in  the  country.  He  led  his  people  in  their 
successful  struggle  against  the  French  and  Maximilian. 
Thrice  was  he  elected  President  of  the  Republic.  And 
even  now,  almost  five  decades  after  his  death,  he  still 
lives  in  the  mind  of  the  Mexican  peon  as  '1  he  Great 
Liberator.'  I  hope  that  we  can  turn  these  lives  from 
the  path  of  Villa  to  the  path  of  Jaurez."* 

Mexican  Department,  Austin  Theological  Semi- 
nary. Mexican  mission  work  halts  for  the  lack  of  min- 
isters to  supply  the  new  churches  that  are  organized  by 
the  evangelists.  There  has  been  no  provision  in  our 
Church  for  training  Mexican  ministers  and  missionaries. 
We  have  had  to  secure  our  workers  from  Mexico  or  from 
other  denominations.  In  order  to  meet  this  urgent  need, 
the  General  Assembly  asked  the  Board  of  Trustees  of 
the  Austin  Theological  Seminary  to  consider  the  ad- 
visability of  creating  a  Spanish-speaking  Department 
to  give  special  training  to  our  Mexican  students  for  the 
ministry.  The  Assembly  authorized  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  Home  Missions  to  provide  temporarily  the 
salary  of  the  professor  of  this  department,  and  expressed 
the  judgment  that  the  support  of  this  important  and 
distinctively  missionary  service  of  the  Seminary  by  the 
creation  of  an  adequate  endowment  was  a  cause  worthy 
of  the  generous  benefactions  of  the  Lord's  stewards. 
It  is  the  expectation  that  the  boys'  school  at  Kingsville 
will  send  a  number  of  picked  men  each  year  to  the  Sem- 


*Fred  Eastman,  "Unfinished  Business." 


168  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

inary.  The  plans  for  the  Mexican  Department  also 
contemplate  training  lay  workers,  both  men  and  women, 
not  only  for  our  own  work  in  the  Home  Field,  but  for 
the  work  of  our  Foreign  Mission  Committee  in  Mexico 
and  in  Cuba. 

School  for  Mexican  Girls.  The  next  great  educa- 
tional need  is  a  Christian  Industrial  School  for  Girls. 
The  girls  of  our  Mexican  churches  must  be  given  an  op- 
portunity for  a  Christian  training.  No  race  can  pro- 
gress if  the  women  are  left  in  ignorance.  It  is  a  distress- 
ing fact  that  many  of  our  Mexican  Presbyterian  girls 
cannot  read  or  write.  They  are  naturally  bright  and  in- 
telligent, but  they  have  not  had  a  chance.  The  public 
schools  do  not  meet  their  need.  Very  few  Mexican  girls 
reach  the  high  school,  and  almost  none  graduate.  The 
language  is  a  serious  difficulty;  their  poverty  is  another; 
and  there  is  the  question  of  race  prejudice.  While  the 
Mexicans  are  classified  as  "white,"  they  are  generally 
treated  as  inferiors.  The  Church  is  trying  to  lay  the 
foundation  of  a  great  Mexican  Synod  in  Texas.  The 


REASONS  FOR  A  MEXICAN  GIRLS'  SCHOOL 


OUR  MEXICAN  NEIGHBORS  169 

girls  as  well  as  the  boys  must  be  included  in  the  Church's 
educational  program. 

The  failure  of  the  Mexican  girls  to  receive  an  educa- 
tion is  a  serious  handicap  in  the  Church's  work.  The 
Mexican  Church  cannot  progress  unless  both  the  men 
and  the  women  have  the  help  of  a  Christian  training. 
It  is  said  that  in  our  2,000  Mexican  Presbyterians  there 
are  not  five  girls  that  have  a  high  school  education  or 
its  equivalent.  The  boys  who  have  had  an  opportunity 
at  the  Industrial  Institute  and  at  the  Theological  Sem- 
inary look  for  their  life  companions  among  the  girls  of 
other  Churches  who  have  been  able  to  secure  an  educa- 
tion in  their  denominational  schools.  An  industrial 
school  for  girls  is  imperatively  necessary  in  our  Church's 
work  for  the  Mexicans.  From  such  a  school  will  go  a 
stream  of  Presbyterian  girls,  trained  in  the  science  of 
health,  sanitation,  and  home-making,  and  to  be  Chris- 
tian teachers  and  leaders  in  their  churches  and  commun- 
ities. Many  of  them  will  go  into  the  training  school  at 
Austin,  to  become  missionaries  and  wives  of  our  Mexican 
ministers. 

Harmful  Propaganda.  The  very  ignorance  of  the 
Mexicans  furnishes  a  fertile  field  for  agitators  and  prop- 
agandists of  many  sorts.  The  I.  W.  W.  and  other  rad- 
ical organizations  have  taken  advantage  of  their  break 
with  the  Church  and  are  at  work  among  them.  In- 
flammatory literature  against  Church  and  State  is  being 
distributed  in  all  the  important  Spanish-speaking  cen- 
ters of  the  Southwest. 

"The  literature  for  this  propaganda  is  not  limited  to 
tracts,  however;  many  books  are  used,  such  as  'Jesus 
Christ  Never  Existed,'  'Mary  Magdalene,  the  Mistress 
of  Jesus,'  'An  Imaginary  God,  the  Child  of  Fear,'  and 


170  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

others  of  like  nature.  How  deeply  the  seeds  of  atheism 
and  radical  socialism  have  been  implanted  up  to  date  it  is 
difficult  to  say.  The  work  has  gone  far  enough,  however, 
to  warrant  the  undertaking  of  aggressive  steps  to  coun- 
teract such  harmful  agitation.  It  is  significant  that  a 
member  of  the  Mexican  national  legislature  returned, 
after  a  trip  throughout  the  Southwest  among  Mexicans, 
to  report  in  Mexico  City  that  'the  United  States  is  be- 
coming I.  W.  W.  and  atheistic.'  It  is  also  significant 
that  in  the  Bisbee  deportation  sometime  ago  one-third 
were  Mexicans.  The  ignorance  of  Mexicans  makes  a 
fertile  field  for  the  planting  of  all  sorts  of  corrupting 
ideas,  and  nothing  but  a  counter-attack  along  lines  of 
education,  and  the  implanting  of  the  Christian  princi- 
ples of  individual  responsibility  for  and  service  to  the 
group  will  protect  them  from  this  insidious  propaganda 
which  is  continually  being  spread  among  them."* 

Another  organization  that  is  seeking  to  take  advantage 
of  the  simplicity  and  ignorance  of  the  Mexican  people 
is  the  Mormon  Church.  To  quote  again  Mr.  Stowell: 

"In  the  very  center  of  the  Southwest  in  the  Salt  River 
Valley  of  Arizona  which  has  risen  almost  overnight  from 
the  wilderness  and  clothed  itself  with  verdure  of  remark- 
able beauty  and  economic  value,  the  Mormons  have 
quietly  established  themselves  on  thousands  of  acres 
of  the  most  productive  soil.  They  have  reared  their 
neat  chapels,  and  now  they  have  projected  a  Mormon 
temple  to  cost  at  least  $600,000.  This  will  make  the 
Salt  Lake  River  Valley  the  great  Mormon  center  of  the 
Southwest,  and  from  it  will  go  out  scores  of  missionaries 
to  work  among  Mexicans  both  above  and  below  the 
border.  Already  many  adherents  of  Mormonism  are 
reported  in  Old  Mexico,  and  a  recent  report  indicates 
thirty-seven  Spanish-speaking  Mormon  missionaries  in 
the  four  States  of  Arizona,  New  Mexico,  Texas  and  Colo- 


*J.  S.  Stowell,  "The  Near  Side  of  the  Mexican  Question." 


OUR  MEXICAN  NEIGHBORS  171 

rado.  It  is  reported  that  a  considerable  number  of 
Mexican  converts  to  Mormonism  in  the  United  States 
have  already  been  baptized."* 

International  Good-Will.  The  Mexican  work  is 
a  vast  and  far-reaching  undertaking.  It  has  to  do  with 
the  people  of  the  two  nations,  and  has  an  important 
bearing  upon  our  relations  with  the  Republic  of  Mexico. 
International  comity  must  be  based  upon  confidence 
and  trust.  There  cannot  be  mutual  understanding  and 
good -will  if  there  is  distrust  or  suspicion.  The  gospel 
is  the  agency  of  brotherhood  between  the  races.  The 
missionaries  interpret  the  spirit  and  heart  of  America. 
The  Mexicans  are  naturally  appreciative  and  responsive 
to  kindness.  Hundreds  of  them  will  go  back  to  Mexico. 
Every  one  of  them  is  a  potential  friend  of  America,  or  a 
potential  enemy.  The  Church  can  make  them  friends. 
Someone  has  said  that  if  the  money  spent  by  the  Gov- 
ernment on  the  punitive  expedition  into  Mexico  in  1916 
had  been  given  to  the  Church  for  missions,  the  Mexican 
border  would  be  as  safe  as  the  Canadian  border  where 
for  four  thousand  miles  there  cannot  be  seen  a  fort,  a 
gun  or  a  soldier  on  either, side  of  the  line.  The  differ- 
ence is  Hcme  Missions,  and  Home  Missions  is  Chris- 
tianity. We  can  have  such  a  neighbor  on  the  South, 
with  all  that  it  means  of  mutual  trade,  mutual  under- 
standing and  mutual  good-will,  if  we  will  give  the  gospel 
a  free  hand. 


*"The  Near  Side  of  the  Mexican  Question." 


172  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  What  is  the  ancestry  of  the  Mexican? 

2.  How  many  are  there  in  America? 

3.  Why  can  we  not  class  all  the  Mexicans  as  foreigners? 

4.  Do  the  religious  needs  of  the  Mexicans  in  the  United  States 

differ  from  the  Mexicans  in  Mexico? 
.").     Who  was  the  first  worker  of  our  Church  among  the  Mexicans? 

6.  What  other  Americans  have  been  and  are  engaged  in  the  work? 

7.  What  test  determines  the  success  of  missionary  effort  for  the 

Mexicans? 

8.  What  is  one  interesting  feature  of  the  Mexican  work? 

9.  Do   the  unoccupied  fields  constitute   a   challenge   to   larger 

effort? 

10.  What  evil  forces  are  at  work  among  the  Mexicans? 

11.  Why  do  the  Mexicans  in  the  United  States  offer  Protestantism 

an  unusual  opportunity? 

12.  What  effect  have  missions  on  international  good-will? 

13.  What  is  the  most  striking  or  impressive  statement  in  this 

chapter? 


CHAPTER>II. 
THE  DEMANDS  OF  THE  TASK 


If  we  were  to  make  an  aeroplane  survey  of  the  work 
conducted  and  aided  by  the  Executive  Committee  of 
Home  Missions  we  would  travel  more  than  10,000  miles 
through  seventeen  States; 

We  would  look  down  upon  612  workers — pastors, 
evangelists,  teachers,  community  workers — preaching 
and  teaching  in  eleven  languages  in  731  churches, 
schools  and  missions; 

We  would  see  missions  for  Americans,  Indians,  Ne- 
groes, Mountaineers,  French,  Italians,  Bohemians, 
Russians,  Hungarians,  Cubans,  Mexicans,  Syrians, 
Hebrews ; 

We  would  see  15  missions  in  the  various  fields,  need- 
ing larger  and  bettor  buildings;  333  congregations 
needing  churches  and  chapels,  and  299  Home  Mission 
pastors  and  community  workers  needing  houses  in 
which  to  live; 

We  would  see  millions  of  people  of  all  classes  and  con- 
ditions— lumbermen,  miners,  industrial  workers,  peo- 
ple on  farms  and  in  the  cities — who  are  yet  without 
Christ  and  His  Church; 

We  would  see  that  the  necessities  of  this  Home  Mis- 
sion task  are  as  many  and  varied  as  the  needs  of  the 
people  that  go  to  make  up  this  great  nation  in  which 
we  live. 


VII. 
THE  DEMANDS  OF  THE  TASK 

Home  Missions  is  the  work  of  making  and  keeping 
America  Christian,  through  the  agency  of  the  Church, 
the  school,  and  the  home.  In  it  is  involved  the  two-fold 
duty  of  converting  and  of  conserving.  It  is  no  small 
job,  though  the  Church  has  been  working  at  it  in  a 
small  way.  It  must  now  be  undertaken  in  a  large  way 
or  America  will  go  the  way  of  all  nations  that  have  for- 
gotten God  and  His  claims  to  their  obedience  and  ser- 
vice. In  his  book,  "The  Fundamentals  of  Prosperity," 
Mr.  Roger  W.  Babson  says:  "Friends,  let  us  Americans 
never  kick  down  the  ladder  by  which  we  climbed  up. 
Let  us  not  forget  the  foundations  upon  which  all  perma- 
nent prosperity  is  based."  The  fundamentals  of  pros- 
perity are  not  natural  resources,  but  intelligence  and 
virtue  and  faith. 

The  Church  has  built  the  "ladder"  by  which  the  na- 
tion has  come  to  its  high  position  of  power  and  influence 
in  the  world.  Home  Missions  has  made  the  Church 
what  it  is.  The  only  way  to  prevent  the  triumph  of 
evil,  and  insure  the  security  and  permanency  of  our 
Christian  institutions,  is  through  the  extension  of  the 
Church  to  all  parts  of  the  land. 

There  are  several  necessities  of  the  Assembly's  Home 
Mission  work  that  must  be  supplied  if  this  fundamental 
enterprise  is  to  be  lifted  out  of  the  sphere  of  comparative 
indifference  it  now  occupies  into  the  place  of  supreme 
interest  it  deserves  in  the  thought  and  prayers  of  the 
Church. 


176  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

1.  An  Understanding  of  its  Importance. 

(a)  To  the  Nation.  Home  Missions  has  for  its  ob- 
jective a  saved  America,  and  all  that  is  implied  in  the 
Scriptural  warrant  that  the  people  are  most  blessed 
whose  God  is  the  Lord.  The  strength  of  a  nation  does 
not  flow  down  from  the  halls  where  its  laws  are  enacted, 
nor  from  the  courts  where  its  judgments  are  executed, 
nor  from  the  offices  where  its  business  is  done;  it  flows 
up  from  the  homes  and  the  firesides  of  the  people.  A 
nation's  glory  is  not  measured  by  its  worldly  resources 
but  by  the  higher  qualities  of  mind  and  heart. 

"I  am  saddened  when  I  see  our  success  as  a  nation 
measured  by  the  number  of  acres  under  tillage,  or  of 
bushels  of  wheat  exported,  for  the  real  value  of  a  country 
must  be  weighed  in  scales  more  delicate  than  the  bal- 
ance of  trade.  The  gardens  of  Sicily  are  empty  now, 
but  the  bees  from  all  climes  still  fetch  honey  from  the 
tiny  garden  plot  of  Theocritus.  On  the  map  of  the 
world  you  may  cover  Judea  with  your  thumb,  Athens 
with  your  finger  tip,  and  neither  of  them  figures  in  the 
prices  current,  but  they  still  live  in  the  thought  and  ac- 
tion of  every  civilized  man.  Did  not  Dante  cover  with 
his  hood  all  that  was  in  Italy  six  hundred  years  ago. 
And  if  we  go  back  a  century,  where  was  Germany  unless 
in  Weimar?  Material  success  is  good,  but  only  as  the 
necessary  preliminary  of  better  things.  The  measure 
of  a  nation's  true  success  is  the  amount  it  has  contrib- 
uted to  the  thought,  the  moral  energy,  the  intellectual 
happiness,  and  the  spiritual  hope  and  consolation  of 
mankind."* 

It  is  everywhere  manifest  that  the  communities  that 
were  occupied  by  the  Church  in  the  beginning  of  their 

"James  Russell  Lowell. 


THE  DEMANDS  OF  THE  TASK  177 

settlement,  are  the  communities  that  are  the  sources 
of  the  nation's  greatest  strength  today.  The  failure  of 
the  Church  to  follow  the  people  into  new  territory,  leav- 
ing the  scattered  communities  without  adequate  relig- 
ious advantages,  accounts  for  some  of  the  Church  and 
national  problems  that  now  confront  the  Christian  forces 
of  this  country.  Students  of  American  religious  condi- 
tions affirm  that  the  failure  of  the  evangelical  churches 
to  enter  Northern  California  in  force  and  with  adequate 
organization  in  the  early  days  when  the  life  of  that  new 
country  was  taking  form,  is  responsible  for  the  slow 
growth  of  Christian  idealism  there  during  the  years 
since.  If  Home  Missionaries  had  been  sent  in  adequate 
force  to  the  moving  populations  in  the  Mississippi  Val- 
ley in  1830  when  Mormonism  was  striking  root,  there 
would  probably  be  no  Mormon  Church,  which  today  is 
one  of  the  most  dangerous  and  subtle  of  all  the  enemies 
threatening  our  Christian  civilization*  Home  Mission 
agencies,  in  the  poverty  of  their  resources,  have  not 
always  been  able  to  serve  the  moving  multitudes  at  the 
time  the  saving  influence  of  the  Church  was  needed 
most.  Not  being  sure  the  new  settlement  would  be 
permanent,  they  could  not  risk  the  chance  of  the  "field 
moving  away,"  forgetting  that  the  world  is  the  Church's 
field  and  if  the  people  move  from  one  community  they 
will  take  the  Kingdom  with  them  and  bless  the  com- 
munity to  which  they  go. 

"In  no  part  of  the  service  of  God  is  there  greater  need 
for  that  faith  which  is  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for 
and  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen,  or  greater  need  for 
that  spiritual  vision  which  can  see  not  only  the  things 
which  are  but  also  the  things  which  shall  be.  Missions 
in  America  deals  not  with  culminations  but  with  begin- 


178  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

nings.  Its  function  is  not  to  sing  the  triumph  song  of 
harvest,  but  to  sweat  with  the  labor  of  the  days  of  plow- 
ing and  planting.  It  must  fall  into  the  ground  and  die, 
to  the  end  that  others  afterward  may  reap  thirty  and 
sixty  and  an  hundred  fold.  By  its  very  nature  Home 
Missions  works  in  the  day  of  small  things.  Materially, 
it  has  no  beauty  that  it  should  be  desired.  It  wears 
no  glamor  of  earthly  glory.  It  has  no  gala  day.  It 
hears  no  world  applause.  The  loneliness  of  the  picket 
line  and  the  poverty  of  the  pioneer  are  the  cross  and  the 
crown  of  its  daily  life.  But  this  is  fundamental  to  the 
progress  of  the  Kingdom.  Churches  do  not  spring  forth 
full  grown  by  the  fiat  of  the  Almighty.  It  is  a  Kingdom 
of  Life  and  it  comes  by  the  normal  operation  of  the  laws 
of  life.  It  is  first  the  grain  of.  mustard,  smallest  of  all 
seeds,  but  growing  until  the  birds  of  heaven  find  a  home 
in  its  branches.  It  is  first  the  blade  and  then  the  ear 
and  afterwards  the  full  corn  in  the  ear."* 

(b)  To  the  Church.  Marshal  Foch  has  said  that  no 
battle  would  ever  be  won  by  an  army  on  the  defensive. 
It  is  not  enough  to  hold  a  line;  the  Church  must  push 
forward  into  new  and  stronger  positions.  Home  Mis- 
sions is  the  Church  on  the  offensive,  carrying  the  forces 
of  righteousness  into  those  places  where  danger  lurks 
and  the  need  is  greatest.  It  is  the  chief  agency  for  the 
extension  of  the  Church's  borders.  It  blazes  the  trail 
into  unoccupied  territory,  organizes  new  churches  that 
become  centers  of  Christian  influence,  lays  the  founda- 
tions and  develops  the  resources  that  support  our  entire 
denominational  activities  both  in  the  Home  and  For- 
eign Fields. 

"The  advance  of  the  Kingdom  is  along  the  line  of  the 
weak,  struggling,  little  churches — monuments  of  the  faith 


*Rev.  Arthur  G.  Jones,  "Home  Missions  and  the  Kingdom." 


THE  DEMANDS  OF  THE  TASK  179 

and  heroism  of  men  and  women  who  believe  the  prom- 
ises of  God — outposts  pushed  across  the  line  of  the 
Usurper's  domain — the  advance  guard  of  the  Kingdom — 
I  see  it  yonder — the  little  church  at  the  front — plain 
and  bare — no  artistic  beauty — no  glory  in  the  eyes  of 
the  world — but  it  is  Bethel,  the  House  of  God,  the  Gate 
of  Heaven.  Immortal  souls  out  there  where  life  is  hard, 
passing  through  into  the  City  of  God.  If  so  be  that  the 
gates  of  the  City  are  pearls,  then  yonder  humble  little 
chapel  is  one  of  God's  jewels,  and  the  keeper  of  the  gate 
not  only  a  shepherd  of  the  scattered  sheep  of  today,  but 
a  herald  at  the  front  proclaiming  the  coming  of  the 
King."* 

It  is  estimated  that  at  least  ninety  per  cent  of  all  the 
Presbyterian  churches  in  the  United  States  had  their 
origin  in  the  Home  Mission  enterprise.  If  there  had 
been  no  Home  Missions  there  would  be  lacking  from 
our  rolls  at  least  3,000  congregations,  including  some  of 
the  strongest  and  most  influential  in  the  whole  denom- 
ination. In  its  Home  Mission  work,  the  Presbyterian 
Church  stands  at  the  door  of  almost  unmeasured  oppor- 
tunity. There  are  openings  in  new  and  growing  centers 
for  church  organizations,  which  if  accepted  will  mean 
more  to  our  denominational  growth  the  next  ten  years 
than  the  past  twenty-five  years  have  done. 

(c)  To  the  Man.  A  nation  is  a  composite  of  persons. 
To  bring  men  and  women  to  a  saving  knowledge  of  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  highest  duty  of  Home  Missions.  All  other 
results  and  considerations,  however  desirable  and  worthy, 
are  the  by-products  of  the  spiritual  regeneration  of  the 
individual.  There  are  within  the  bounds  of  the  Assem- 
bly 21,000,000  people  outside  the  Church,  and  who  ac- 
cording to  their  own  profession  do  not  acknowledge 


*Rev.  Arthur  G.  Jones,  "Home  Missions  and  the  Kingdom." 


180  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

Christ's  claims  to  their  love  and  service;  13,000,000  chil- 
dren and  youth,  the  future  leaders  in  every  department 
of  the  nation's  life,  are  outside  of  all  churches  and  Sun- 
day schools,  growing  up  with  no  knowledge  of  God,  or 
righteousness,  or  a  judgment  to  come;  3,000,000  illit- 
erates who  can  neither  read  nor  write,  and  who  if  their 
salvation  depended  upon  their  ability  to  read  God's 
word  for  themselves  would  be  lost.  These  multitudes 
of  unevangelized,  uneducated,  and  unenlightened,  em- 
phasize the  magnitude  and  importance  of  the  Home  Mis- 
sion enterprise.  It  involves  the  welfare  of  the  nation, 
the  growth  of  the  Church,  and  the  salvation  of  the  man. 
2.  A  Knowledge  of  Its  Bigness.  The  General  As- 
sembly has  assigned  the  Home  Mission  Committee  a 
task  that  includes  more  and  varied  interests  than  any 
agency  doing  mission  work  in  this  country.  By  the 
direction  of  the  Assembly  the  Executive  Committee  has 
been  made  responsible  for  the  following  important 
duties: 

1.  To  occupy  fields  in  the  frontier  Synods  and  growing 
centers,  where  Presbyterian  churches  ought  to  be  estab- 
lished. 

2.  To  build   houses  of  worship  for  newly  organized 
churches,    mission    buildings,    manses    and    missionary 
homes. 

3.  To  Christianize  the  millions  of  foreigners  now  pour- 
ing into  the  South — Italians,  Bohemians,  Hungarians, 
Mexicans,  Cubans,  Chinese,  Syrians,  French,  Spanish, 
Russians  and  Hebrews. 

4.  To  meet  our  denominational  responsibility  for  the 
Christianization  of  the  nine  million  Negroes  within  our 
doors,  including  the  support  of  Stillman  Institute  for 
boys,  and  the  Schools  for  Girls  at  Tuscaloosa,  Alabama. 


THE  DEMANDS  OF  THE  TASK  181 

5.  To  maintain  mission  schools  for  the  religious  train- 
ing of  the  backward  children  and  youth  in  the  moun- 
tains, among  the  Mexicans,  Indians,  Negroes,  Italians, 
and  others  needing  help. 

6.  To  promote  the  spirit  and  message  of  evangelism 
throughout  the  Church,  and  support  a  corps  of  compe- 
tent evangelists,    including   evangelists   for   the   special 
classes — Negroes,  Mexicans,  Indians,  mountain  people, 
and  prisoners. 

7.  To  co-operate  in  the  publication  of  the  Missionary 
Survey,  with  the  Assembly's  Stewardship  Committee 
and  the  Woman's  Auxiliary,  and  conduct  a  continuous 
campaign  of  missionary  education  in  the  churches,  Sun- 
day-schools and  missionary  societies,  for  the  purpose  of 
creating  a  deeper  interest  in  the  great  task  of  saving 
America. 

8.  To  co-operate  with  other  Christian  denominations 
in  the  Christianization  of  a  strong  home  base  that  the 
evangelization  of  the  world   may  be  speedily  accom- 
plished. 

This  is  the  outline  of  a  task  which  in  its  variety  and 
magnitude  some  denominations  have  as  many  as  five 
boards  or  committees  to  accomplish.  Some  Churches 
have:  (a)  an  agency  for  Home  Missions,  which  is  the 
work  of  extending  the  denominational  borders;  (b)  an 
agency  for  Church  and  Manse  Erection,  with  the  single 
duty  of  providing  churches  and  manses  for  new  congrega- 
tions; (c)  an  agency  for  Colored  Evangelization,  with 
no  other  responsibility  than  that  of  looking  after  the 
religious  and  educational  needs  of  the  Negro;  (d)  an 
agency  for  conducting  Mission  Schools  in  the  mountains; 
and  (e)  an  evangelistic  committee,  which  has  direction 
of  all  the  evangelistic  activities  of  the  denomination. 
In  the  Southern  Presbyterian  Church  these  five  impor- 


182  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

tant  and  far-reaching  responsibilities  have  been  assigned 
to  the  Assembly's  Home  Mission  Committee.  The  sup- 
port of  this  work  on  its  present  basis  demands  approxi- 
mately $750,000  per  year.  It  will  require  in  the  near 
future  an  annual  support  fund  of  at  least  $1,000,000, 
if  it  is  to  fully  accomplish  its  task. 

3.  A  Larger  Financial  Support.  Notwithstanding 
the  many  additions  of  responsibility  which  from  time  to 
time  have  been  made  to  the  work  of  the  Home  Mission 
Committee,  there  has  been  no  corresponding  increase  in 
the  Committee's  financial  support.  A  secretary  of  an- 
other denomination,  appealing  to  the  students  in  the 
Theological  Seminary  for  service  in  the  Home  Field, 
said:  "I  bring  you,  young  men,  a  three-fold  promise. 
The  Board  of  Home  Missions  will  guarantee  each  of  you 
a  living  salary  if  you  will  devote  yourself  faithfully  to  its 
service;  the  Board  of  Church  Erection  will  guarantee 
you  a  place  in  which  to  gather  your  people  for  worship; 
the  Woman's  Board  will  furnish  you  a  parsonage." 

The  secretary's  three-fold  promise  to  the  young  men 
of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church  brings  in  striking 
contrast  the  poverty  of  the  provision  made  for  Home 
Missions  by  our  Church,  and  the  unequal  burden  placed 
upon  the  Executive  Committee  compared  with  the  sup- 
port given  Home  Missions  by  other  denominations.  Even 
the  wholly  inadequate  amount  assigned  this  cause  in  the 
Progressive  Program  is  not  received.  The  discrimina- 
tion against  Home  Missions  begins  with  the  Assembly 
in  the  small  percentage  given  it  in  the  Benevolent  Bud- 
get, perhaps  the  smallest  of  any  denomination.  Many 
Synods,  Presbyteries,  Sessions,  and  Auxiliaries  con- 
tinue the  discrimination  by  still  further  reducing  even 
the  small  percentage  assigned,  and  by  withholding  the 


183 


small  amount  apportioned  Assembly's  Home  Missions, 
which  work  is  fundamental  to  the  Church's  development 
and  progress  and  which  underlies  the  Church's  advance 
in  every  field. 

Because  of  the  failure  of  the  Church  to  provide  suffi- 
cient funds  to  accomplish  its  five-fold  work,  the  Home 
Mission  Committee  cannot  guarantee  the  young  men  in 
the  Seminary  and  the  young  women  in  the  Training 
School  a  living  salary  if  they  will  volunteer  for  life  ser- 
vice in  the  Home  Field.  It  cannot  guarantee  them  a 
building  in  which  to  gather  their  people  for  worship  and 
instruction.  It  cannot  guarantee  them  a  comfortable 
home  in  which  to  live.  It  can  only  make  an  appeal  for 
service,  with  no  positive  assurance  being  given  that  the 
great  Church  they  are  asked  to  serve  will  adequately 
support  them  in  their  sacrificial  undertaking. 

(a)  More  Money  is  Needed  for  Salaries  of  Workers. 
The  Assembly's  Committee  aids  in  the  support  of  six 
hundred  and  twelve  missionaries — pastors,  evangelists, 
teachers,  community  workers — not  including  the  wives 
of  missionaries  unless  specifically  employed  for  a  defi- 
nite service.  The  Home  Mission  pastor's  wife  is  not 
on  the  pay  roll  of  any  committee.  It  is  her  privilege  to 
serve  without  pay.  These  missionaries  must  have  ade- 
quate support.  They  do  not  ask  for  opulence,  but  they 
have  a  right  to  expect  that  they  will  be  provided  with  at 
least  the  necessities  of  life.  They  cannot  render  the 
fullest  and  freest  service  if  they  continually  find  them- 
selves in  financial  straits.  Many  of  them  are  making 
sacrifices  that  the  Church  does  not  understand.  Serv- 
ing mission  fields  and  teaching  in  mission  schools,  they 
can  never  expect  a  large  or  increasing  salary.  They  are 
representing  the  Church  on  the  firing  line,  where  the 


184 


UNFINISHED  TASKS 


burden  is  heaviest  and  the  fighting  is  the  hardest.  They 
have  to  deny  themselves  many  comforts,  not  to  speak  of 
luxuries.  They  are  not  able  to  buy  many  books,  or 
attend  many  conferences,  or  have  the  privilege  of  travel. 
They  are  in  these  hard  fields  because  there  is  need  and 
opportunity  for  service.  Many  could  improve  their 
situation  by  accepting  work  in  other  and  more  inviting 
fields,  but  it  would  mean  deserting  a  people  that  needs 
their  ministry.  The  Church  owes  it  to  them  that  their 
support  be  adequate  and  regular.  The  Church  cannot 
expect  her  sons  and  daughters  to  volunteer  for  service 
in  the  mountains,  among  the  foreigners,  the  Indians, 
in  the  cities,  in  the  mining  camps  and  other  places  of 


MISSION  HOUSE 


THE  DEMANDS  OF  THE  TASK  185 

destitution  and  need,  unless  they  are  given  assurance 
that  they  will  be  supported  in  a  way  that  they  can  render 
their  best  service  and  make  their  life  count  for  the  most. 

(6)  More  Money  is  Needed  for  Church  and  Mission 
Buildings.  The  workers  must  have  a  suitable  place  in 
which  to  work.  This  is  the  outstanding  and  imperative 
need  of  the  Assembly's  Home  Missions.  It  is  almost  a 
tragedy  to  send  these  brave  men  and  women  against 
the  conditions  they  are  called  to  face  without  proper 
equipment.  The  Committee  has  never  been  able  to 
plan  its  work  in  a  large  and  adequate  way.  There  have 
been  no  funds  with  which  to  provide  the  buildings 
needed  in  the  various  fields.  The  workers  have  been 
obliged  in  many  instances  to  gather  their  people  for 
teaching  and  worship  in  rented  halls  and  borrowed 
buildings  wholly  unsuited  for  the  purpose.  The  small, 
and  oftentimes  unsafe  and  unsanitary,  school  buildings 
and  churches  have  been  acquired  largely  at  the  expense 
of  the  workers,  by  the  use  of  contributions  that  justly 
should  have  gone  to  them. 

(c)  More  Money  is  Needed  for  Manses  and  Missionary 
Homes.  Out  of  their  meager  salary  many  Home  Mis- 
sion pastors  must  rent  a  house.  Can  a  minister  and  his 
family  live  decently  and  pay  rent  on  $1,200  per  year? 
Some  Home  Missionaries  receive  no  more  than  this.  In 
addition  to  the  rent,  which  they  are  unable  to  pay,  they 
always  face  the  possibility  of  having  to  move.  There 
are  Home  Missionaries  living  in  places — they  cannot  be 
called  homes — that  are  a  disgrace  to  the  great  Church 
they  are  asked  to  serve.  Workers  in  the  mountains, 
among  the  immigrants,  Negroes  and  Indians,  often  are 
compelled  to  live  in  houses  that  have  not  even  a  sugges- 
tion of  convenience  or  comfort.  When  these  faithful 


186  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

men  and  women  give  themselves  day  in  and  day  out 
without  stint  to  their  work,  they  certainly  are  entitled 
to  a  home — with  all  that  is  implied  in  the  word — where 
they  can  rest  in  comfort  before  going  out  again. 

Equipment  Needs.  In  considering  the  Home  Mis- 
sion buildings  needed  it  should  be  remembered  that  the 
Executive  Committee  has  had  only  very  meager  funds 
for  building  purposes,  and  in  consequence  the  entire 
Home  Mission  work  of  the  Church  is  practically  without 
equipment.  When  the  great  expansion  in  the  Home 
Mission  work  became  necessary  the  past  few  years  the 
Committee  was  unprepared  for  the  advance.  Reports 
from  the  Home  Mission  Committees  of  the  eighty-eight 
Presbyteries  in  the  General  Assembly  show  that  there  is 
a  present  need  for  churches,  manses,  schools,  chapels, 
dormitories,  teachers'  homes,  community  houses,  and 
hospitals,  totaling  $3,301,950. 

A  careful  survey  of  the  various  fields  and  departments 
of  the  Assembly's  Home  Missions,  in  the  mountains, 
among  the  Indians,  immigrants  and  Negroes,  and  the 
Home  Mission  Presbyteries  of  the  weaker  Synods  for 
churches,  manses,  schools,  dormitories  and  hospitals, 
reveals  needs  totaling  $1,500,000.  This  amount  was 
approved  by  the  General  Assembly  and  was  included  in 
the  budget  of  the  Assembly's  proposed  Equipment  Cam- 
paign. We  are  living  in  a  new  day.  The  Home  Mis- 
sion provision  of  former  years  will  not  meet  present  de- 
mands. No  Church  was  ever  served  by  a  more  devoted 
or  capable  body  of  workers,  and  no  workers  were  so  in- 
adequately equipped  and  supported  in  their  task.  The 
call  is  not  so  much  for  an  advance,  but  for  the  Church  to 
come  up  to  the  support  of  the  army  that  is  already  in 
the  field  contending  against  almost  overwhelming  odds. 


THE  DEMANDS  OF  THE  TASK  187 

4.  A  Greater  Appreciation  of  the  Worker.     The 

Home  missionary  is  doing  the  work  of  a  patriot  just  as 
truly  as  the  man  who  wears  the  nation's  uniform.  He 
is  laboring  at  the  fountain  head  of  the  nation's  moral 
resources,  and  is  striving  to  make  the  nation  strong  by 
making  it  Christian. 

"When  the  historian  writes  the  history  of  national 
progress  in  the  nineteenth  century,  he  will  first  of  all 
take  account  of  the  Home  Missionary.  The  march  of 
our  civilization  is  to  the  music  of  our  religion.  This  . 
gave  the  inspiration.  Without  that  music  the  pioneer 
had  not  marched  to  such  victory." 

In  no  nation  where  the  gospel  has  gone  has  the  mis- 
sionary of  the  Cross  accomplished  so  much.  It  is  be- 
cause of  a  century  and  a  half  of  Home  Mission  labor  and 
Home  Mission  sacrifice  that  America  is  the  hope  of  the 
world  today.  It  is  because  the  Home  Missionary  has 
been  willing  to  serve  and  suffer  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  Christian  faith  and  Christian  ideals  that  America 
stands  as  a  beacon  light  to  the  nations  that  are  groping 
their  way  through  the  darkness  to  higher  and  better 
things.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  all  the  armies  and 
navies  and  congresses  and  courts  which  an  enlightened 
civilization  has  devised  for  the  protection  and  govern- 
ment of  the  people  have  not  influenced  the  life  of  the 
nation  as  profoundly  as  these  humble  soldiers  of  the 
Cross,  who  battled  in  lowliness  and  poverty  and  ob- 
scurity, and  many  of  whom  at  the  end  of  their  service 
did  not  have  enough  of  this  world's  goods  to  erect  for 
themselves  a  lowly  stone  in  the  graveyard.  But  through 
faith  they  subdued  kingdoms,  wrought  righteousness, 
and  out  of  their"  heroic  labors  there  are  in  this  land  thous- 


iss  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

ands  of  congregations  of  God's  people  singing  the  songs 
of  the  heaven  bound  and  who  rejoice  in  the  work  that 
God  through  their  fathers  wrought. 

"The  story  of  Christian  enterprise  and  Christian  con- 
quest in  the  United  States  has  never  been  written,  ex- 
cept in  the  most  meager  and  fragmentary  form.  When 
American  church  records  of  the  last  hundred  and  fifty 
years  have  been  faithfully  consulted  and  the  facts  prop- 
erly set  forth  they  will  furnish  a  narrative  of  devotion 
and  heroism  unsurpassed.  In  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice 
and  in  the  record  of  actual  accomplishment,  the  Ameri- 
can Home  Missionary  holds  a  place  second  to  no  am- 
bassador of  the  gospel  in  any  part  of  the  world.  In  the 
face  of  difficulties  he  has  done  his  work  well.  In  the 
midst  of  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  under  the  most 
adverse  circumstances,  with  heart-breaking  discourage- 
ments, and  often  on  a  starvation  salary,  he  has  wrought 
like  a  hero  and  his  labor  has  not  been  in  vain.  The 
thousands  of  churches  and  the  majority  of  educational 
institutions  between  the  Mississippi  and  the  Pacific  are 
the  fruits  of  Home  Missionary  work.  They  constitute 
the  power  that  makes  for  righteousness  in  that  great 
empire.  He  has  gone  forth  quietly,  with  no  ostentation. 
He  has  ever  been  a  patient,  uncomplaining  hero.  Too 
often  neglected  and  undervalued,  his  work  unapprecia- 
ted and  forgotten,  he  has  toiled  and  struggled  steadily 
on,  winning  triumph  after  triumph,  until  at  the  present 
day  we  are  just  beginning  to  awaken  to  the  fact  in  the 
mighty  enterprise  of  building  this  nation,  he  has  accom- 
plished the  labors  of  a  Hercules."* 

We  have  hundreds  of  noble  men  and  women  who  are 
pouring  out  their  lives  in  the  service  of  the  Church  in  the 
redemption  of  their  country  on  the  margins  and  fron- 
tiers where  there  is  no  glamor  of  romance  and  no  stim- 


*Rev.  W.  E.  McCullough,  D.  D.,  "Christianizing  America." 


THE  DEMANDS  OF  THE  TASK  189 

ulus  of  applause  to  support  them  in  their  sacrifice.  It 
would  help  these  workers  in  their  hard  and  difficult 
fields  if  they  thought  that  the  Church  knew  and  appre- 
ciated their  sacrifices.  They  are  not  serving  for  appre- 
ciation, but  appreciation  would  help  them  to  serve. 

5.  More  Earnest  Prayer.  If  you  would  become  in- 
terested in  the  Home  Mission  cause,  pray  for  it.  If  you 
would  help  the  Home  Mission  workers,  pray  for  them. 
Prayer  is  the  power  that  makes  known  the  will  of  the 
Master,  unlocks  the  resources  of  heaven  and  unites  all 
hearts  in  the  bonds  of  a  common  service.  By  prayer 
we  can  have  a  share,  through  Christ  and  His  spirit,  with 
every  worker  in  the  field.  When  the  Church  unitedly 
lifts  this  great  work  to  God  daily  in  earnest  and  believ- 
ing prayer,  His  blessing  will  be  poured  out  and  His 
Kingdom  will  come  to  the  mountains,  in  the  cities  and 
on  the  plains. 

It  is  a  tremendous  task  before  the  Church  in  the  evan- 
gelization of  America.  When  we  think  of  the  unoccu- 
pied fields,  the  unevangelized  multitudes,  the  spiritual 
indifference  on  the  part  of  many  Christians,  the  perils 
that  threaten  our  national  life,  the  great  foes  with  which 
we  have  to  contend,  the  social  unrest  and  the  industrial 
discontent  that  are  everywhere  rife,  surely  it  is  evident 
that  we  are  confronted  with  an  undertaking  that  will 
require  unswerving  loyalty  and  devotion  to  Jesus  Christ. 

In  the  light  of  this  tremendous  task,  the  greatest  need 
is  not  Home  Mission  information,  though  information 
is  needed;  it  is  not  more  workers,  though  workers  are 
needed  for  the  waiting  fields  and  the  plenteous  harvests; 
it  is  not  money,  though  money  is  needed;  the  greatest 
need  is  the  ministry  of  intercession  on  the  part  of  God's 
believing  people. 


190  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

Alongside  this  great  need  there  is  seen  the  great  lack. 
The  Church  is  not  praying  as  it  should.  Christ's  people 
are  not  praying  as  they  should.  There  is  a  temptation 
to  depend  too  much  upon  organization  and  movements, 
upon  plans  and  programs,  and  too  little  upon  God's 
spirit  which  He  has  promised  to  bestow.  There  is  no 
greater  service  that  can  be  rendered  the  cause  of  Home 
Missions  than  the  daily  use  of  the  Calendar  of  Prayer, 
praying  by  name  for  the  workers  and  the  fields  they  serve. 
Let  there  be  a  revival  of  prayer  for  the  evangelization  of 
America  and  all  else  will  be  supplied.  There  will  be  a 
deepening  of  our  interest  in  the  Home  Mission  cause, 
an  out-going  of  our  sympathy  for  the  workers,  and  the 
giving  of  our  means  for  their  support.  When  the  Church 
begins  to  pray  for  the  salvation  of  the  lost  multitudes 
in  America,  the  redemption  of  America  will  begin. 

6.  Greater  Loyalty  to  the  Church's  Home  Mission 
Program.  The  Home  Mission  work  of  the  Church 
must  not  be  confused  with  many  good  and  useful  non- 
denominational  undertakings  that  are  crowding  in  to 
claim  the  attention  and  the  resources  of  Christian  peo- 
ple. The  Church  has  a  definite  responsibility  for  the 
evangelization  of  the  unsaved  multitudes  and  for  the 
religious  training  and  spiritual  enlightenment  of  the 
millions  of  children  and  youth  that  are  growing  up  in 
our  own  land  without  religious  instruction.  This  is  the 
first  great  purpose  of  Home  Missions.  •  Other  agencies, 
inspired  by  the  Church,  are  working  for  a  better  coun- 
try and  a  better  world.  The  Church  is  not  in  competi- 
tion with  any  helpful  institution.  It  is  not  in  conflict 
with  any  organization  that  is  striving  to  bring  about  bet- 
ter moral  and  social  conditions.  It  is  the  teaching  of 
the  Church  that  nothing  is  foreign  to  any  Christian  that 


THE  DEMANDS  OF  THE  TASK  191 

concerns  his  fellowmen.  The  Church  welcomes  the 
assistance  and  co-operation  of  all  agencies  that  are  striv- 
ing to  bring  in  the  rule  of  Christ  in  the  world.  But  no 
institution  can  take  the  place  of  the  Church.  "The  soul 
of  reform  is  the  reform  of  the  soul." 

The  Church  has  its  distinctive  work  in  the  spiritual 
regeneration  of  mankind.  This  is  a  task  that  cannot 
be  shifted  or  evaded.  It  is  the  reason  for  the  Church's 
existence  and  it  is  the  source  of  its  power.  We  owe  our 
first  allegiance  to  our  Church  and  its  organized  work. 
No  organization  or  cause,  no  matter  how  worthy,  should 
be  given  the  help  that  is  needed  by  the  Church  for  the 
gospel  enterprises  for  which  it  is  responsible.  Our  Home 
Mission  progress  is  being  hindered  for  the  want  of  adequate 
funds.  Other  organizations  over  which  the  Church  has 
no  control  are  pushing  in  to  claim  the  help  that  the  Home 
Mission  work  should  have.  If  the  Church  is  failing  in 
her  great  mission  of  evangelizing  the  masses  through  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel  it  is  because  she  is  not  receiving 
the  loyal  and  sympathetic  support  of  every  member. 
Our  first  concern  should  be  for  the  work  for  which  our 
Church  is  definitely  responsible. 

The  Home  Mission  enterprise  represents  the  combined 
effort  of  Protestant  Christianity  to  make  real  in  Amer- 
ica's life  the  ideals  and  hopes  of  the  nation's  founders 
who  sought  through  the  establishment  of  this  Christian 
nation  to  open  to  the  ignorant  and  oppressed  of  the  world 
an  opportunity  to  come  to  a  knowledge  of  the  Truth. 
This  faith  has  been  fittingly  expressed  in  the  magnifi- 
cent monument  to  the  honor  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers, 
erected  on  the  rocky  summit  overlooking  the  bay  where 
the  Mayflower  first  anchored.  Bishop  Galloway  says: 


192  UNFINISHED  TASKS 

"That  colossal  statue  is  at  once  a  miracle,  a  parable, 
and  a  prophecy;  a  miracle  of  artistic  genius,  a  parable 
of  Christian  civilization,  and  a  prophecy  of  increasing 
national  glory.  On  the  corners  of  the  pedestal  are  four 
figures  in  a  sitting  posture,  representing  Law,  Morality, 
Freedom  and  Education.  Standing  far  above  on  a 
lofty  shaft  of  granite  is  a  majestic  figure,  symbolizing 
faith,  holding  an  open  Bible  in  one  hand,  and  with  the 
other  uplifted  pointing  far  away  to  the  throne  of  God. 

"What  a  sublime  conception!  How  true  to  the  facts 
of  our  heroic  history!  That  open  Bible  is  the  Magna 
Charta  of  America,  and  that  uplifted  hand  symbolizing 
trust  in  the  God  of  our  fathers  is  the  condition  of  our 
national  stability  and  continued  prosperity." 

It  is  for  the  realization  of  the  great  purpose  of  a  Chris- 
tian America  that  the  Church  is  asked  to  give  her  means, 
her  service  and'her  prayers.  No  greater  cause  can  en- 
list the  love  and  labor  of  every  true  follower  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  Give  a  comprehensive  survey  of  Assembly's  Home  Missions. 

2.  What  measures  the  real  value  of  a  country,  and  in  what  do  you 

think  Americans  should  feel  the  most  satisfaction? 

3.  Contrast  the  task  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  Home  Mis- 

sions with  the  Home  Mission  agencies  of  other  denomi- 
nations. 

4.  What  three  factors  emphasize  the  imjwrtance  of  Assembly's 

Home  Missions? 

5.  Contrast  with  other  denominations  the   provisions  made  for 

Home  Missions,  and  show  the  need  for  larger  support. 
0.     What  six  things  does  the  Home  Mission  task  specifically  need? 

7.  Do  you  think  the  Church  deals  justly  with  its  Home  mission- 

aries in  matter  of  salary,  homes  and  equipment? 

8.  What  does  the  Home  Mission  enterprise  represent? 

9.  What  has  most  impressed  you  in  this  chapter? 


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